‘Tragedy’ unfolding in Sudan’s El Gezira amid attacks and violations
Civiliams fleeing the war from El Gezira to El Gedaref, Kassala, Sennar, and Blue Nile (File photo: RD)
The Hasaheisa Resistance Committees have condemned the killing and injury of 17 people in the villages of Um Jereis and El Halila villages in Sudan’s El Gezira state. In a statement via social media, the committees say that the attackers were members of the Rapid Support Forces, who also plundered all of the houses, and stole all agricultural equipment they found in the villages.
The attack launched by the RSF on Um Jereis village near Tabat on Friday which resulted in the death of eight villagers and the injury of nine others.
The statement says that RSF soldiers attempted to raid El Halila village (El Halaween). When the villagers resisted, several villagers were injured by gunfire. Four of them are reportedly in critical condition.
The Sudanese Doctors Syndicate condemn the rape of a nurse and two relatives of patients, allegedly by RSF elements, at the Hasaheisa Children Hospital last week.
In a statement yesterday, the syndicate sats that the nurse first witnessed the rape of the two others and began screaming and calling for help. She was then rapes herself.
The statement pointed out that frequent news about violence confirms that people in the villages and towns of El Gezira are suffering under the fire of violations by the RSF “in all forms, including displacement, forced disappearance, injuries, murder, and rape, adding that “these barbaric crimes occur in circumstances of Internet interruption and the absence of information”.
The doctors appealed to local, regional, and international civil society and all organisations and human rights defenders to work together to stop these violations and to create a broad front to preserve human rights.
Sudan’s Emergency Lawyers document 154 attacks by the RSF on villages and towns in El Gezira between March 7 and April 16, which left 248 people dead and 347 wounded.
In a post on its X account on Saturday, the group also reported 34 airstrikes by Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) warplanes that killed 27 people and wounded 52.
In the report, which deals with human rights violations and crimes against civilians, Emergency Lawyers say that these numbers are increasing with the spread of the RSF within the state and its incursion into villages where there are no military bases nearby. They blame the continuation of military operations between the two parties to the conflict and the failure to assemble the forces of both sides in camps away from civilians.
The RSF has taken control of all localities of El Gezira except El Gurashi and El Managil, which may also fall to the RSF..
Widespread violations
The report attributes most of the RSF shootings to the residents’ resistance to their attempts to plunder their homes. It said that the attacks caused high rates of displacement.
The RSF is reportedly holding civilians in temporary and permanent detention centres accusing them of cooperating with the army. The RSF also launched ethnic-based detentions before they took control of Wad Madani on December 19.
Emergency lawyers say the humanitarian situation is extremely bad and that the disruption of communications and Internet exacerbates the humanitarian situation and increases the crimes and violations.
Interviews and testimonies
Emergency Lawyers explained that it prepared the report based on field work on the ground by members of the group and cooperating volunteers, The team listened to 18 victims and the testimonies of 62 eyewitnesses from villages and neighbourhoods, and the report also worked on searching in open sources.
Humiliation
Violations include humiliation, degradation of dignity and cruel treatment, as the report monitored repeated cases in a number of villages, in which the RSF rounded up men and youngsters and beat them with whips, forcing them to crawl long distances, including the elderly and the sick. Young people are also subjected to cruel and degrading treatment, and men are usually rounded up under the pretext of cooperating with the SAF or on charges of possessing weapons.
Detentions and enforced disappearances
The report stated that during the control of the SAF of the state, officers of the Military Intelligence of the First Infantry Division were continuously detaining members of the resistance committees in the neighbourhoods of towns and villages and anti-war activists from all villages of El Gezira.
A campaign of detentions organised on an ethnic basis was carried out by the SAF in Wad Madani, capital of El Gezira. “A large number of young people went missing, who originally came from Darfur and Kordofan whose fate is unknown so far,” the report said.
“After the RSF entered Wad Madani, they also launched a large detention campaign. They converted the Wad Madani Prison into the main detention centre in which detainees from villages of El Gezira are deposited after they spend periods of time in temporary detention centres (in homes, schools, and government offices) in villages and towns.
The number of enforced disappearances increased significantly among people fled El Gezira to areas under the control of the SAF.
The report also mentioned mass kidnappings in villages during RSF raids and demanding that residents pay a ransom for their release.
Forced displacement
The report pointed to the displacement of hundreds of thousands to Sennar and White Nile state or towards northern and eastern Sudan after the RSF took control of El Gezira. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Sudan at least 250,000 people fled Wad Madani.
UN agencies and major humanitarian groups have also suspended their work in the strategic city of Wad Madani, which has been a haven for hundreds of thousands of displaced people from Khartoum, and which was home to some half a million people, according to UN figures.
Disastrous results
The RSF attacks have caused an increase in mass displacement of civilians from El Gezira and a deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the affected areas, Emergency Lawyers said.
The report warned of the negative impact on the local economy and communities as a result of displacement and destruction, the exposure of children, women, and the elderly to the risk of physical, psychological and sexual attacks, as well as the worsening health situation and the lack of medical services in areas affected by violence.
Emergency Lawyers demand the RSF immediately stop the violations and prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes, disclose them, identify all of them to public opinion and prepare to hand them over in the future to the judicial authorities concerned with addressing violations of the armed conflict .
The group called for the release of all civilians detained in all detention centres in the state, and for an end to the displacement of residents from their villages.
RSF cooperation with telecommunications companies is needed to ensure the restoration of communication and internet services to all areas of the state, the lawyers say.
The report calls on both the SAF and RSF to allow the passage and secure the entry of humanitarian aid to all areas of the state, allow international organisations to restart the functioning health facilities, and prepare to cooperate with the international fact-finding mission on all violations committed within the state.
The report also recommended that the Sudanese Air Force stop indiscriminate aerial bombardments “that do not distinguish between civilian and military targets”.
The report called on the international community to act swiftly and effectively to ensure that humanitarian access is not disrupted by both sides and urges parties to the conflict to take effective action to protect the human rights of all people in Sudan.
The SAF and RSF have been approached for comment.
and then