Sudanese condemn ‘extrajudicial killings of young men’ in Khartoum Bahri

Various sectors of the Sudanese society have condemned the killing of a group of young men in Halfaya in Khartoum North, reportedly by elements fighting alongside the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the city.

On Monday, a two-minute video clip circulated on social media showing a group of armed men inside a house in Khartoum ​​North (Khartoum Bahri), standing near several young men’s bodies wearing civilian clothes, after they had killed them. One of the gunmen called them kuffaar (infidels).

Radio Dabanga has been unable to verify the location and time of the clip.

While the SAF did not issue a statement regarding the violent incidents in Halfaya, the RSF on Monday accused the El Baraa bin Malik brigade, affiliated with the Islamic Movement and fighting alongside the army, of liquidating more than 70 young people volunteering in takaya (soup kitchens) in the Halfaya neighbourhood. The paramilitaries suspected the youth of cooperating with the RSF.

Members of the Bahri Emergency Room told Radio Dabanga that they had not yet confirmed whether the victims were members of one of the emergency room or volunteers serving the soup kitchens in the neighbourhood.

“The number of victims of these liquidations is large, but we cannot present accurate figures due to the difficulty of movement in the area,” one of them explained.

Lawyer Moez Hadra told Radio Dabanga said that “these young takaya volunteers should have been honoured instead of being murdered in this hideous manner.

“The Islamists, however, are now waging war against the Sudanese people and targeting resistance committees and volunteers who provide humanitarian aid to the war victims.”

He said that the unlawful killing of civilians in Halfaya are considered a war crime and a crime against humanity according to the Sudanese Penal Code, the Sudanese Armed Forces Act, and international laws, but ruled out that “those who carried out these executions would be brought to trial because the de facto government is now in the hands of the Islamists”.

More extrajudicial killings

Sources told Radio Dabanga that dozens of other people were also killed in the area.

Social media posts quoted residents of Halfaya and surroundings, who said that at least 120 people were shot dead after the SAF and allied armed groups drove the RSF from the area.

Last week, the army launched a major ground offensive from Omdurman on key areas in Khartoum state, occupied by the RSF since the start of the war in mid-April last year. The areas of El Mogran in northwest Khartoum (where the two Niles meet) and El Halfaya and El Kadaro in Khartoum North witnessed heavy artillery shelling on Friday. The fighting continued over the weekend.

The Emergency Lawyers group reported on its Facebook page yesterday that the area of Halfaya witnessed arbitrary detentions and extrajudicial killings by the El Baraa bin Malik brigade and members of the army in El Halfaya on September 29.

Some of the killings and detentions were done “in response to calls for incitement and hatred. All cases were the seed of cooperation with the RSF that have dominated the neighbourhood for nearly a year since the outbreak of war on April 15,” the lawyers state.

“Committing these crimes and the execution of so-called death sentences (by field trials) continue and has brought civilians and the military together and is greatly supported by calls for incitement despite the catastrophic circumstances the city is witnessing.”

The Civil Democratic Forces alliance (Tagadom) described the massacre as a full-fledged war crime, and vowed that “one day, justice will reach all those who committed and incited it”.

The National Umma Party reminded the SAF of their pledges to respect international humanitarian law and to commit to implementing law and justice,” and called on the army command “to resolve such horrific crimes and to investigate them urgently and transparently, bring the perpetrators to justice and commit to protecting civilians.”