Panafrican News Agency

Rights group accuses Sudan's paramilitary forces of targeting civilians

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) armed group has “killed, injured, and unlawfully detained” scores of civilians and raped women and girls during attacks across Al Gezira state, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Monday. 

In a press release, the human rights watchdog said given the scale and severity of the threat to civilians, it is critical for the United Kingdom to use its November United Nations Security Council presidency to push for UN action to deploy a mission to protect civilians in Sudan.

It said since the 20 October, 2024 defection of a leading RSF ally in eastern Al Gezira, the RSF has attacked at least 30 villages and towns, certainly an underestimate, including Rufaa, Tamboul, Al-Sireha, and Azrag. The UN has said that over 130,000 people have fled the attacks to other parts of Sudan.

“This recent massive uptick in the Rapid Support Forces’ heinous attacks against civilians should end any lingering hopes that these crimes will stop without a strong global response,” said Mohamed Osman, Sudan researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The UN Security Council’s minimal action is clearly failing to protect civilians. It urgently needs to authorise the deployment of a civilian protection mission.”

The RSF, in an ongoing conflict with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), took control of Wad Madani, Al Gezira’s state capital, in December 2023 and has committed serious abuses, including sexual violence and killings, in the state since, HRW said in the press release. 

On 20 October, Abu Agla Keikel, the commander of an RSF ally force in the state, defected to the SAF, triggering this surge in retaliatory attacks on civilians, including those from Keikel’s tribe, HRW said.

While communications and access limitations are hampering real-time reporting, HRW said it interviewed six people, including witnesses and local rights monitors, offering an initial insight into events. It also verified two videos showing the RSF detaining men in Al-Sihera village and reviewed satellite imagery of possible new grave sites in the village.

A 55-year-old woman from Tamboul said the RSF fighters shot at houses as they entered the town on 22 October. The forces rounded up men and boys near her house. “I saw an RSF soldier shoot a man in the chest,” she said. “They kept shouting at us to leave the town. They said whoever stays here will not be considered a civilian.”

The press release said on 25 and 26 October, the RSF attacked Al-Sireha village, clashing with some armed residents, reportedly leaving 124 civilians dead and over 200 injured. A resident saw RSF vehicles shooting mounted guns and firing rocket-propelled grenades as they entered the village on the morning of 25 October. He fled later that day. “We saw piles of bodies, including two children, near one of the irrigation canals,” he said.

According to local monitors, the RSF detained over 150 people in Al-Sireha. Two videos posted on Facebook on 26 October and verified by HRW show RSF fighters detaining about 100 men in Al-Sireha village.

RSF fighters are also reported to have subjected women and girls to sexual violence during these attacks. 

HRW sais as of 4 November, the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa, a regional women’s rights group, had documented 25 cases of rape and gang rape by the RSF, including 10 girls among the victims. 

The rights group also documented at least six cases in which survivors of acts of sexual violence subsequently died by suicide. On 3 October, the UN, citing local health officials, said that “more than 27 women and girls aged between 6 and 60 years old” had been “subjected to rape and sexual assault”.

Rights groups and the media said that they received reports of widespread looting in eastern Al Gezira.

“These attacks are worsening an already dire humanitarian situation, which has been exacerbated by ongoing restrictions imposed by the SAF on access to RSF-controlled areas and looting by the RSF,” the press release said.

The United Kingdom is the penholder on Sudan at the UN Security Council and holds the presidency for November, during which the council will be discussing how to better protect civilians in Sudan following an October report by the UN secretary-general. 

HRW said given the massive uptick in brutal attacks on civilians, it is urgent for the United Kingdom, in cooperation with African Union member states, to press the Security Council to authorise a civilian protection mission for Sudan. UN member states should also bolster support for the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan, as the secretary-general recommended.

“The United Kingdom, as penholder on Sudan, needs to step up at this moment of crisis and ensure that the calls of those desperately in need of protection in Sudan are not ignored,” Osman said. “Global and regional leaders cannot afford to be missing in action given the alarming trends.”

-0- PANA MA 11Nov2024