Sudanese villagers whipped by militants on video amid reports of ethnic massacres
Disturbing footage purportedly show militia members killing and torturing civilians as part of a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign.
WARNING: Graphic content
Disturbing video and images on social media purportedly show paramilitary fighters and jihadis killing and torturing Sudanese civilians.
The footage, which has not been independently verified, emerged after reports villagers had been massacred following the capture of an army base amid the African nation’s ongoing civil war.
The reports claimed a large number of civilians from the Masalit ethnic group had been killed by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and Janjaweed militia fighters in the area of Geneina, the capital of the state of West Darfur, close to the border with Chad.
Unbelievable footage of Jihadi militias whipping, torturing, and terrorizing Black Africans from the #Massalit tribe in #Darfur, captured after the massacre took place in the #Jenaina area. The terrified look in their eyes tells you what they fear. A video from previous… pic.twitter.com/XlkYFnHYNb
— Walid Phares (@WalidPhares) November 7, 2023
One photo showed at least a dozen bodies lying on the ground, and a video appeared to show militants gloating over several corpses and brandishing their rifles.
Another clip showed the heavily armed fighters whipping and terrorising a large group of men as they cower on the ground.
“Unbelievable footage of jihadi militias whipping, torturing, and terrorising black Africans from the Masalit tribe in Darfur, captured after the massacre took place in the Geneina area,” conservative pundit Walid Phares wrote on X.
“The terrified look in their eyes tells you what they fear. A video from previous centuries.”
On Tuesday, people fleeing to Chad reported a new surge in ethnically driven killing after the RSF took over the main army base in Geneina, according to Reuters.
A Reuters reporter saw a number of men crossing from Darfur in Chad, about 27km west of Geneina, with a number who fled saying they had witnessed killings by Arab militias and RSF forces targeting the Masalit.
They said the attacks occurred in Ardamata, an outlying district of Geneina that is home to the army base and a refugee camp for internally displaced people.
Reuters has previously reported that the RSF and allied Arab militias conducted systematic attacks on the Masalit, the majority ethnic African tribe in Geneina, between April and June.
Nabil Meccia, a nurse who crossed into Chad, told Reuters on Tuesday the attack on the army base started early last week.
He said he had seen RSF forces killing civilians with indiscriminate gunfire, as well as lining men up and executing them.
Another witness, Mashaar Omar Ahmed, said she had seen militia and RSF forces execute more than 30 men in Ardamata after separating them from the women.
“They asked the men if they were Masalit, and they didn’t deny it,” she told Reuters, adding 10 members of her family were missing.
Toby Harward, a senior UN official for Darfur, said there were “sickening reports and images coming from Ardamata, West Darfur, including of assassinations, grave violations and massacres of civilians, following RSF takeover of area”.
“Those with authority must uphold international humanitarian law, protect civilians, ensure rule of law, and provide unfettered humanitarian access to vulnerable persons,” he said on X.
At least 1000 bodies were buried in a mass grave in Geneina earlier this year following weeks-long killing frenzy that one survivor said turned the city into “swamps of blood”, a Reuters investigation found.
The militia members were particularly focused on killing men and boys, as they were seen as potential fighters, survivors said.
Reuters reported in September, “It was a rolling ethnic killing campaign that lasted for weeks. The target — the city’s darker-skinned Masalit tribe, for whom West Darfur is their historical homeland. The Arab attackers, multiple survivors said, often referred to the Masalit as ‘anbai’, meaning slave.”
Sickening reports & images coming from Ardamata, W #Darfur, inc of assassinations, grave violations & massacres of civilians, following RSF takeover of area. Those with authority must uphold international humanitarian law, protect civilians, ensure rule of law, & provide…
— Toby Harward | طوبي هارورد 🇺🇳 (@tobyharward) November 7, 2023
Peace talks fall short
Sudan’s warring parties have made no progress towards a ceasefire in their latest talks, instead reiterating past agreements to improve access to humanitarian aid, host Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday.
“The facilitators regret that the parties were unable to agree on a ceasefire during this first round, as there is no acceptable military solution to this conflict,” the official Saudi Press Agency reported.
Fighting erupted in April between the forces of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary RSF.
More than 10,000 people have been killed in the war so far, according to a conservative estimate by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project.
Saudi Arabia hosted talks in the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah during the war’s first weeks which resulted in the Jeddah Declaration, a commitment to spare civilians and civilian infrastructure and to let in badly needed aid.
But within a week United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths told AFP there had been “important and egregious” violations of the agreement.
Multiple early truces were violated as well.
The United States, which has helped facilitate the Jeddah talks, tried to downplay expectations for this latest round, with officials stressing it was too early to discuss a lasting political solution.
However they did raise the possibility the talks would work on “achieving ceasefires”, and Saudi Arabia voiced hope for “a political agreement under which security, stability and prosperity will be achieved for Sudan and its brotherly people”.
The results have so far come up well short of that, and it was unclear on Tuesday what the next steps would be.
The two sides agreed to work with the UN “to address obstacles to the delivery of relief aid” and identify contact points to facilitate the transit of aid workers, SPA reported.
They also agreed to “confidence-building measures” including detaining prison escapees, it said, an apparent reference to top figures under former strongman Omar al-Bashir who broke out of detention facilities early on in the war and aligned with the army.
“It is now up to both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces to fully adhere to their responsibility to implement what has been agreed upon,” it said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week warned the RSF against what Washington called an “imminent large-scale attack” on North Darfur’s capital, where thousands were seeking refuge from fighting.
The RSF has in recent weeks claimed army bases in all but one of Darfur’s major cities, raising fears it could take over the region.
North of the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Tuesday, a massive fire ignited at an RSF-controlled oil refinery which the paramilitaries blamed on an army air strike, though the army said “a fuel tanker belonging to the militia exploded”.
— with AFP
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