The scene takes place in the dirt yard of a farm in North Darfur, western Sudan. Two bodies lie on the ground, one with its head in a pool of blood. A dozen men proudly brandish swords, whips and Kalashnikov-type assault rifles. They sing. “Allahu Akbar”.
A second video, filmed a kilometre away, shows six lifeless bodies lying in front of a row of men wearing turbans. Four victims have their hands tied behind their backs; blood is pouring from the head of one of them: it is an execution. Who is behind this and for what reasons?
These images, obtained and authenticated by The world with lighthouse reports, Washington Post and Sky News, shed light on the ethnic dimension of these summary executions. They also help identify those responsible: Arab militias affiliated with the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
At the heart of Sudan’s civil war: ethnically motivated abuses
Since April 2023, the RSF, led by dissident general Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, known as “Hemetti”, has been at war with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), a regular army under the control of General Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Al-Bourhane. In just over a year, this conflict has left nearly 8 million people displaced and tens of thousands dead, according to the UN.
In the Darfur region, the conflict is marked by ethnic violence that has already caused hundreds of thousands of deaths since 2003. The RSF is supported by Arab tribes, among whom it forms militias to fight the regular army and its allies. Among the latter, on the other hand, there are rebel groups that recruit among non-Arab minorities in the region.
According to reports from several NGOs, the conflict is seeing an increase in abuses committed by Arab militias affiliated with the FSR against civilians from non-Arab communities, particularly the Masalit and Zaghawa. Abuses that the FSR has repeatedly denied, blaming “Purely tribal conflicts” and Sudanese regular forces. Videos verified by The world However, he denies these claims.
Attack on the city of Kutum
In early June 2023, conflict gripped the small town of Kutum in North Darfur. According to a dozen local testimonies we have collected, on the morning of June 3, FSR militias attacked the town for the first time. Some of the attackers then headed towards the Kassab refugee camp, set up after the 2003 genocide, 3 kilometres north of Kutum and inhabited in particular by members of the Zaghawa community. This is where the abuses take place.
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