Surrounded by Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries, the residents of Al-Sigheia had three options to escape their attackers. The first: jump into the Nile at the risk of drowning. The second: sliding into the night through the fields that border this small town in Gezira, an agricultural region located southeast of Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. The third: hide at home, hoping not to be beaten, raped or murdered while the militia looted the town.
After three days of siege, Abu Zeid Mudassir, 22, opted for the second solution. “The soldiers had installed a machine gun on the roof of the school. “They shot on sight, even at residents leaving the mosque.”remember. In the early morning of October 24, the young man fled with his family through the countryside, traveling more than fifty kilometers on foot, sleeping on the ground, hidden among the ears of corn.
Al-Sigheia, Rufaa, Tamboul, Al-Sariha, Al-Hilaliya… One after another, more than a hundred cities and towns in Gezira were assaulted by the RSF, led by General Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, known as “Hemetti”. Between October 20 and November 10, at least 1,245 civilians died in the region, according to estimates verified by the world, and two or three times as many people were injured.
Punitive expeditions
At the origin of the massacre is the betrayal of a man. On October 20, Abu Agla Keikal, RSF commander in eastern Gezira, sided with General Abdel Fattah Al-Bourhane’s Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), although since late September the latter appear to be regaining control. advantage on the battlefield. in the capital and on various fronts in the east of the country.
When the regular army rushed to announce the concentration of Abu Agla Keikal and its troops, estimated at 400 soldiers, the inhabitants initially celebrated the news, thinking of freeing themselves from the yoke of the paramilitaries who have ruled Gezira with an iron fist since December. 2023. Their joy was short-lived. Commander Keikal’s forces, which until then had helped limit RSF abuses east of the Nile, suddenly withdrew, leaving the population defenseless.
In retaliation for this humiliating desertion, the paramilitary militias increased punitive expeditions under the pretext of locating army collaborators. This massive campaign of revenge, directed mainly against members of the Shukriya tribe – where the deserter came from – quickly became an incursion accompanied by massacres and forced displacements without the regular army, stationed on the outskirts of the region, reacting.
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