HUDO: Three farmers killed in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains

Last Friday, members of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces shot three farmers dead at their farms near Kadugli, capital of South Kordofan.

The Sudanese Human Rights and Development Organisation (HUDO) reported on Monday that six farmers were preparing their land for cultivation in the area of Murta in Kadugli locality when elements of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) riding in a vehicle and four others on camels attacked them.

The farmers ran away but the attackers shot one of them, Mikhail Khamees, in his head. He died instantly. Then they pursued the other five farmers and caught two of them. They tied Mousa Yousef and Osman Kuku with ropes, and tortured them before they shot them dead.

The three surviving farmers managed to reach Kadugli, and reported the violent incident to the police. The dead were taken to the Kadugli Teaching Hospital by their relatives before they were buried.

One of the survivors informed HUDO Centre that he recognised three of the attackers. He mentioned their names to the police. Yet, up to date, “not a single perpetrator has been arrested or interrogated”.

The human rights organisation expressed its concerns about the situation calls upon the Sudanese government “at state and central level” to urgently investigate the state of insecurity in the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan and to solve it urgently.

The authorities should also ensure that police execute their duties responsibly and observe the Rule of Law.

HUDO also urged the government to respect its international obligations towards their citizens, and to dissolve and disarm the Popular Defence Forces (PDF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) government militias.

Last week, PDF members shot two farmers west of Delling in South Kordofan. The farmers were working on their farms when a group of armed men wearing PDF uniforms asked them where their cattle was. When the two farmers replied they did not know, they were shot. One was killed instantly. The other farmer was seriously injured.

On Monday, the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) confirmed in a press statement that the PDF militia was dissolved last week. Its offices have been confiscated, together with coordination of the National Military Conscription Service.

The statement described previous reports that the PDF has been reintegrated into SAF as “baseless”.

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