Yale HRL report: ‘Significant expansion of grave sites corroborates reports of RSF atrocities in El Gezira, Sudan’

Comparison of satellite imagery show “significant expansion of grave sites in El Sariha, Rufaa, and Abu Jalfa, in Sudan’s El Gezira, between September 29 and October 31, as well as evidence consistent with body disposal in Tamboul during the same period, corroborates reports that Rapid Support Forces (RSF) allegedly committed widespread mass atrocities against civilians and their communities across El Gezira,” a new report says.

The key findings of a report published yesterday by the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab (Yale HRL) in the USA, which includes several citations of community-driven Radio Dabanga coverage, also corroborates looting and damage to markets and medical facilities in Tamboul and El Shorfa, as well as thermal scarring in agricultural fields near Azraq consistent with arson. Yale HRL also corroborates activity consistent with significant increase in displaced people between September 8 and October 28 2024 in El Fao, El Gedaref.

The report highlights that the mortality and damage verified through imagery analysis likely underrepresent events on the ground. HRL acknowledges that “reports by international organisations, local news media and aid groups, and on social media corroborate that RSF allegedly conducted widespread and systematic attacks on civilians including mass targeted extrajudicial killings, detainment and torture of men and boys, conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) against women and girls, and looting and destruction of property, health facilities, and agriculture.”

The United Nations confirmed at least 124 deaths in attacks on over 30 villages, while local media report that the RSF has killed at least hundreds of people in attacks on at least six cities and over 50 villages in the area.

The report concludes that “the exact number of fatalities is unknown and cannot be determined based on remote sensing alone.”

Radio Dabanga has contacted the RSF for comment.

Community-driven coverage

In an environment where access to reliable information is limited, much of the coverage by Radio Dabanga cited in the new report was made possible by reports reaching our news desk from listeners and readers ‘on the ground’.

“I was separated from my family and children for a day and tears streamed from my eyes when I found my young children,” listener Mustafa Mohamed, who was one of an estimated 50,000 people who were forced to flee villages in the Tamboul area, told Radio Dabanga on October 28.

On October 23, contributions from local sources – who often request to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals – allowed Radio Dabanga reporter Suleiman Siri to warn of “a military escalation as a result of revenge campaigns by the RSF”, and accusations that the RSF was preventing the burial of bodies.

The new Yale HRL report also cites a Radio Dabanga post of October 26, in which the first news of the killing of at least 124 people in El Gezira the previous day, reach Radio Dabanga via calls from listeners who had experienced the bloody events first hand.

Read the full Yale HRL report here