The ‘nightmare of violence’ in Sudan has persisted, with militants recently carrying out gruesome public mass gang rapes and killing forty mourners at a burial.
People who have fled El-Fasher in fear have spoken of the brutal abuse they have endured at the hands of the militants, including rape. El-Fasher fell to the Rapid Support Forces.
The rapes were gang rapes,’ Amira, a mother of four, said from a temporary shelter. Rape in broad daylight, in front of an audience, with nobody around to intervene.
Speaking under a pseudonym during a webinar hosted by the advocacy group Avaaz, Amira warned that “they would come and rape you” while you were sleeping.
I witnessed firsthand how the fighters abducted the girls of families who were unable to pay. They threatened to abduct the girls if payment was not made. “They would take them immediately if you had daughters of a young age.”
According to Doctors Without Borders (MSF), following a prior RSF attack on the adjacent Zamzam camp last spring—which evacuated over 380,000 people—more than 300 survivors of sexual violence sought treatment from MSF teams in Tawila.
Charity organizations have documented cases of horrific sexual assaults on infants as young as one year old.
According to the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), a funeral gathering in El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan State, was attacked yesterday, resulting in the deaths of at least 40 civilians and injuries to dozens more.
All parties must immediately end hostilities in order to protect civilians and adhere to international humanitarian law, according to OCHA’s repeated demands.
A disturbing video of a militant grinning while he kills victims using a machine gun has gone viral.
Abdullah Idris, as shown in another video, opens fire on his victims even after they beg for forgiveness.
As of April 2023, 460 people have been slain in the ongoing war that began when militants stormed a maternity facility.
People on both sides of the conflict have claimed responsibility for horrific crimes.
There is growing concern that the humanitarian crisis in Sudan could worsen as the conflict, which has already claimed the lives of tens of thousands and displaced millions, has expanded into new regions.
Two thousand innocent bystanders were slain in the span of only 48 hours, according to reports last week.
The horrific footage of the shooters who stormed a maternity hospital and murdered 460 innocent people is also available online.
Several eyewitnesses have described how extremists broke into houses and killed their victims. Brutal videos showing the systematic roundup and execution of unarmed individuals have been going viral on social media.
After seizing El-Fasher, the final army bastion in the expansive western Darfur region, the RSF, who have been at war with the military since 2023, were getting ready to launch an attack in Kordofan.
Paramilitaries took control of all five Darfur state capitals after El-Fasher’s downfall, leading many to worry that Sudan would be effectively divided along an east-west axis.
Northern, eastern, and central areas bordering the Nile and Red Sea are under army control, whereas the RSF presently rules Darfur and portions of the south.
Despite the UAE’s repeated denials, the United Nations has accused Dubai of providing weapons to the RSF.
Egyptian, Saudi, Turkish, and Iranian forces have reportedly lent help to the Sudanese army.
Following a meeting of the security and defense council to review a US request for a ceasefire, the army-backed defense minister of Sudan announced on Tuesday that the military would continue its fight against the RSF.
In an address that was broadcasted on state television, Hassan Kabroun expressed gratitude to the Trump administration for their peace offers and efforts, while also noting that “preparations for the Sudanese people’s battle are ongoing.”
War preparations, he argued, are a constitutionally protected right of the nation. The United States has proposed a truce, but no specifics have been disclosed.
As a result of the war in Sudan, millions of people have been forced to flee their homes, causing the world’s largest humanitarian catastrophe.
Despite suffering a setback in El Fasher, Sudanese Army Chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burham has pledged to continue fighting.
“We want to see this conflict come to a peaceful end, just as we have with so many others,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday. However, she acknowledged that the situation on the ground is currently quite challenging.
In her words, the US is “actively engaged” in peace talks with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.
The authorities allied with the army had previously turned down a ceasefire offer from the four nations, known as the Quad, that would have barred the RSF and the army from participating in a democratic transition.
Concerned that such actions “may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity,” the International Criminal Court expressed “profound alarm and deepest concern” over El-Fasher’s reports on Monday.
The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the warring factions to “reach the negotiating table, put an end to this nightmare of violence – now” during his speech at a conference in Qatar on Tuesday.
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