Testimony of West Darfur massacre survivor: ‘RSF slaughtered three young men and ordered women to jump over the corpses…’
A school that served as a shelter for newly displaced in El Geneina was torched in May last year (File photo: Mohamed Khalil UNHCR)
Sudan Media Forum Joint Editorial Room – September 13, 2024
Compiled by: Radio Dabanga
A year and a half ago, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias turned El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, into a ghost town and an unprecedented massacre for civilians. The clashes, which began in the customs district, represented the spark of the beginning of the largest disaster, human massacre, and ethnic cleansing of civilians in a city in the history of Sudan, where, according to preliminary UN statistics, about 15,000 people were killed, including the governor of the state, Khamees Abakar, whose body was mutilated in a gruesome way, while hundreds of bodies were spread on its streets, some of which were used as barriers on a main road for surveillance and inspection of passing cars and fleeing outside the city or to neighbouring Chad in search of security and safety.
Among the tens of thousands of people who arrived from El Geneina to Adré, Chad, a year and a half ago, is the refugee Amal Mousa, who was met by Radio Dabanga in her tent built with tarpaulins and next to her two children, one of whom was born in the camp two months after her arrival. She was seven months pregnant with him on a terrifying journey from her home in El Geneina, near the old mosque in Souk El Atroun in the El Sawra neighbourhood to the Chadian town of Adré, 28 kilometres from El Geneina.
250 corpses in red soil
Amal, a basic school teacher and community activist, recounted in an interview with Radio Dabanga her testimony about what happened and her flight from El Geneina to Adré, describing the hopes of the road from El Geneina to Adré as being like the Day of Judgment, “men, women and children on foot, on cars, animals, many checkpoints and countless bodies, some in the middle of the road and others on its edges, scattered belongings, broken cars and violations of all kinds. Women are whipped violently and insults and a question about the tribe And woe to you if you are a Masalit” She added, “When we left the garden and in the area of red soil, I saw with my own eyes more than 250 bodies covered with tarpaulins . The sight was terrifying and scary.”
International verification
According to a report by the United Nations Human Rights Office, the bodies of at least 87 dead members of the Masalit tribe, killed by the Rapid Support Forces and militias loyal to them, were buried in a mass grave outside the city of El Geneina. According to the UN report, at least 37 bodies were also buried on June 20 last year in a cemetery about one meter deep in the Red Dirt area, and another 50 bodies were buried at the same site on June 21, including seven women and children. The attacks in El Geneina also led to the demolition and destruction of all camps for displaced people in El Geneina, the looting of all southern and western neighborhoods, and the disposal of most of the bodies by throwing them in the Kaja valley.
Three young passengers were slaughtered
Amal related during her interview with Radio Dabanga that at one of the checkpoints on the way to Adré, “two cars stopped in front of us and their passengers got off and the forces based at that point then slaughtered three young passengers in front of our eyes, and added with tears overwhelmed by “it did not stop there, but ordered all the women under beating and threats to jump over every corpse while they relish and laugh and distribute insults and hurtful comments,” and added, “I will never forget this scene. I still suffer from the effects of that trauma and every time the memory comes I feel hallucinogenic.”
Piles of corpses
Amal quoted other scenes from the Babanousa region on her way to the Chadian Adré, describing the road as a street to display scattered bodies. There were so many bodies, including children, women, young people, and the elderly. We were walking and reading the testimony until we stopped at a checkpoint of the RSF and allied militias… “At that point, get my brother Abdel Moneim out of the cart… They told him, you are Masalati, from the Masalit tribe, we will not allow you to go and if you want him to go with you you have to pay us a billion pounds,” she said, adding, “We told them we don’t have money and we begged him with the driver of the car that told us to leave my brother, but they refused and captured him … We don’t yet know his fate and whether she’s dead or alive.”
Two days of siege
Amal says, trying to recall the memories of that first day when clashes broke out in the morning in the customs area in the city of El Geneina, accompanied by her husband Omar Yagoub, her sister Halima and her little daughter Siham , “We thought it was a passing battle that will end within hours, like other events that we witnessed, but unfortunately it extended for two full days, during which we were trapped inside the house for some hours, and my daughter and I used to hide under the beds for fear of falling stray projectiles.”
They tied me up and took my husband as a prisoner
“On the third day, the clashes subsided and I, my sister and my little daughter left the house after my husband Omar ordered us to go to the El Salam neighbourhood because the situation there is better than here,” Amal said in the interview with Dabanga.
“That day witnessed a large-scale attack from all directions on the neighborhood of the revolution by the Rapid Support and allied militias that lasted for 12 hours,” she said, adding, “On that day, about 15 armed men stormed our house in the morning, some of them in rapid support clothes and others in civilian clothes, where I and my husband Omar and his friends Abdelsalam and Mohamed were at home.”
I vomited blood
Amal explained that what she called Baljanjaweed they beat her severely until she drained blood and tied her with ropes and took her husband Omar, a shopkeeper in the city and with him Abdelsalam and Mohamed Asri and left the house, and continued, “The moment they left the house I heard shots and groans, but I was tied to the iron bases of the visitor, and I could not know what happened.” She stated that after painful and long attempts, she was able to get rid of the rope and went out to the street to explore and found her husband’s colleague Abdelsalam killed at the door of the house.
Killed inside a mosque
That day also witnessed the burning and looting of shops and houses and the killing of dozens of civilians in El Sawra neighbourhood, including 13 people, including women and children, inside the old mosque of the city of El Geneina. Amal said the bodies of the dead remained for four lying inside the ancient mosque for four days, and no one could reach them. “Four days later, some of the people of the neighborhood were able to reach the mosque and lift them from there,” she said.
Killing of Governor Khamees
She stated that she was able to find her husband lying on the ground with deep injuries in the Soug Libya area in El Geneina after a difficult search and suffering. “Her husband told her that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which captured him and his colleague Mohamed, had released him here in the Libyan market and took Mohammed prisoner to another place that he did not know. “We transferred Zohi to the hospital in the schools district and left him there for treatment until the events of the secretariat of the bloody West Darfur government and its dependencies occurred until the day of the killing of Governor Khamees Abakar and the subsequent full control of the Rapid Support and allied militias over the city,” she said.
Streets of corpses
“I lost contact with my husband after the militia attacked the hospital and went out in a panic to look for him,” Amal said after the killing of Governor Khamis. She added, “The streets of the city, and I am on the journey to search for Zohi, were scattered with hundreds of corpses, especially in the neighborhoods of schools, Shaba and others,” and continued, “The scenes of the bodies lying in the streets were terrifying, you can not look at some of the horror of their horror.”
Street rape
She confirmed that during the search for her husband, she saw a number of wounded in need of ambulance moaning among the bodies lying on the streets, “but there is no ambulance or passers-by or any other way to help them … I was alone there, in pain and crying and I couldn’t do anything.” “During the search trip and at the intersection of one of the main streets near the interior of Zahra, I was surprised to see a man raping a girl in the middle of the street and near it, about seven gunmen standing on motorcycles and watching. The location was not far from me, so I changed the street quickly and I was terrified… They didn’t see me because they were busy raping the girl.”
My husband’s fate is unknown
She pointed out that during the search for her husband – whose whereabouts and fate are not yet known – she was severely beaten by what she called the Janjaweed and tried to reach her home, but the road in front of her door turned into a fulcrum for the Rapid Support Forces and allied militias, so she changed her mind and decided to leave El Geneina to neighbouring Chad.
Emptying camps and burning shelters
The attacks of the Rapid Support and allied militias in the city of El Geneina also led, according to reliable UN reports, to the burning of all shelters for displaced people in El Geneina, the emptying of its other camps, the sabotage and destruction of hospitals and health centers, the looting of markets, the destruction of the neighbourhoods of El Thawra, El Zohour, El Tadamon, the Council and El Nahda South, in addition to looting and burning them.
The United States officially announced in December that the RSF and allied militias were involved in ethnic cleansing in West Darfur, imposed sanctions on the RSF commander in West Darfur state, and the International Criminal Court opened an ongoing investigation into the events, while the state RSF commander accused of killing the governor denied any involvement.
UN Certificates
According to documented testimonies and reports of the United Nations and international and national organisations defending human rights, the Rapid Support Forces and their allied militias committed during their attack on El Geneina all kinds of crimes against humanity, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, mass murder, rape of women, burying civilians alive and forcibly displacing massacre survivors to Chad and other cities and villages inside Sudan. The city of El Geneina now denies any connection to these horrific crimes and holds other parties responsible.
Suffering in refugee camps
Amal described living in Adré camps after a year and a half of war and asylum as cruel: “Frankly, since we came, we have not found a decent shelter … These houses that we live in, as you see, are not worthy of man, but this is what God has chosen for us,” she called in the interview from international organisations working in the humanitarian field to provide assistance and full care in a manner befitting the refugee person, especially women and children.
I received threats
Amal also called for protection for activists in refugee camps “so that we can talk about the facts and violations that have happened and are happening in complete freedom,” adding , “Even after we arrive here, we find violations and we cannot speak freely and more broadly.” I received threats over the phone and turned off my SIM card four times for unknown reasons just because I talked about the case and reported the facts.”
Closure of the western border
At the end of the interview with Radio Dabanga, Amal called for the closure of Sudan’s western border, which she said constitutes a crossing point for weapons and mercenaries to enter the country, adding, “The only thing I ask the government, after a year and a half of war, is to regain our dignity and land from the rapists and for the Sudanese army to win so that we can return to our lands and homes. We’re tired.”
According to the United Nations, the war in Sudan has forced more than 600,000 Sudanese refugees and180,000 Chadian returnees – the vast majority of them women and children – to flee Darfur to Chad.
This report is published on the platforms of media and press institutions and organisations that are members of the Sudan Media Forum. #ساندوا_السودان #StandWithSudan #SupportSudan
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