Sudanese on Tuti Island: ‘If you don’t help us, we will all be dead within days’

Tuti Island, located between the three cities of Khartoum state, has been besieged by the RSF since the outbreak of war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April last year. After recent army victories, angry paramilitaries fled to the island and are revengefully assaulting the remaining residents. ‘The smell of death is everywhere,’ desperate residents told journalist Sumeya El Matba’ji of El Alag Centre.

Sudan Media Forum Joint Editing Room
Compiled by El Alag Centre for Press Services

Every day, Kamil peeks from behind the door of his house at the street in Tuti Island, hoping that it is clear of paramilitaries with their guns and whips, so that he will be able to go out safely. He needs to search for drinking water and tree branches used as firewood for the preparation of some of the remaining flour to feed his hungry children.

At the same time, Abdeldayim runs cautiously along the houses on Tuti, trying to reach the only pharmacy in the area. Though the pharmacy has been plundered, he hopes to find intravenous solution and Panadol to help relieve the fever that is exhausting the emaciated bodies of his wife and son, so that they will not join the dozens of the island’s residents who recently died of exhaustion within days.

Scenes that are difficult to comprehend are happening on the residential area on Tuti Island, surrounded by water, trees, farms, and livestock. Located in the middle of the three cities of Khartoum state, the island is an important source of vegetables and fruits for the Sudanese capital, El Matbaji states.

In October last year, Sudan’s Emergency Lawyers called for an end to the RSF blockade of food transport to the besieged residential areas of Tuti Island. In May, SIHA Network urged the RSF to immediately end the siege on Tuti Island. This, however, did not happen.

On the contrary, as the recent victories of the Sudanese Armed Forces of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and its allies over the RSF in parts of the state and other places in the country, frustration is growing among the paramilitaries of the RSF, which they may take out on residents.

‘New RSF faces have entered the island. They spread out in the streets carrying weapons, whips and sticks, beating anyone who dares to leave his home.’

‘Revenge campaign’

 “If you don’t save us, the entire Tuti population will be dead within days … The situation is worse than anything you can imagine,” one of the residents of the stricken island told El Matba’’ji.

Tuti is being subjected to a campaign of revenge by RSF members, the residents say. “RSF soldiers are fleeing the army attacks, and their numbers on the island have doubled. They came, carrying cruelty, terror and starvation to death,” he said.

“New RSF faces have entered the island. They spread out in the streets carrying weapons, whips and sticks, beating anyone who dares to leave his home. They enter houses, demanding money and gold, while beating us without mercy, without distinguishing between men and women, calling ‘let the army help you now’. This has become their habit every day,” another source added.

A third resident messaged her that “I sneaked towards the pharmacy on a journey in a mixture of heroism and recklessness, following the instructions of those who knew about this way. I carried on with the requests of the neighbours to bring intravenous solutions and Panadol, which have become an urgent need for every house. I survived my journey to the house of the pharmacy owner, but I did not find anything.

“About three people die every day. We risk going out to bury those who are close to us. We pass by scenes of people lying on the ground, being beaten with whips by the RSF soldiers,” he added.

‘Perhaps their last words’

“In the voice messages [from Tuti], you can almost sense the fatigue, hunger and thirst in the voice and words of its speaker,” El Matba’ji says.

“Terror and fear of retaliation have become the dominant feelings of the island’s inhabitants. Some of those who spoke to us were overcome with caution, for fear of being exposed.”

‘No water, no food, no electricity, no dignity, no freedom in its simplest form. A spot of land where humanity has been absent.’

“Since the army launched its offensive on Khartoum, large numbers of RSF entered Tuti Island. They plundered shops and prevent the entry of goods. They stopped the takaya (charity kitchens) the people had come to depend on. Fuel ran out, access to water and firewood has become almost impossible as the people are prevented from going out with whips, sticks, and bullets  or they would be beaten and killed.

“The RSF became more ferocious. They plundered the only pharmacy in the area and emptied the bottles with the intravenous solutions on the ground. The majority of the people here in Tuti are infected with an unknown fever that has claimed the lives of many.

“The cries for help continue, trying to overcome fear, and perhaps it will be their last words unless the world interferes,” the reporter explains.

‘One big prison’

“No water, no food, no electricity, no dignity, no freedom in its simplest form. A spot of land where humanity has been absent,” one of the sources said.

“Even the chance of leaving in exchange for money paid to the omdas [community leaders] affiliated with the RSF has now become non-existent. There is almost no possibility to leave one’s home, let alone crossing the bridges to leave the island.”

‘About three people die every day. We risk going out to bury those who are close to us. We pass by scenes of people lying on the ground, being beaten with whips by the RSF soldiers.’

El Matba’ji concludes her report by stating that “Tuti has become a large prison where life and dignity are absent. Its inmates await execution, which is carried out successively by thirst, hunger, disease, and killings.

“There are no wells in the neighbourhoods and the residents are prevented from reaching the Nile to get water. The RSF control health centre, what remains of the pharmacy, and the shops. Electricity is a memory from the distant past.

“There is nothing on this green island except the smell of death and the worst forms of human degradation, waiting for the world to respond to the hoarse cries for help.”

#StandWithSudan

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* This report was produced as part of the #StandWithSudan campaign launched by the Sudan Media Forum in April this year, to draw attention to the humanitarian disaster, avert famine, and halt violence against civilians in Sudan. It has been simultaneously published in Arabic by the media institutions and organisations participating in the campaign.