Sudan's Genocidal Militias Rapid Support Forces
The Rapid Support Forces, the history of their establishment, the causes and consequences of their actions, and the humanitarian crisis they have created in Sudan are the focus of this study.
Nowhere is safe
With one hand he stroked the sparse beard thatcovered his jawbone, while with the other he scratched the sand with a branch. Sulayman had first left home in his early teens, running after his father in fear.
He grew up in the refugee camp. He returned home and married. He had to emigrate twiced uring his marriage. “All because of the Janjawid, Dagalu and his men. We had to flee before, but we came back. Now we are fleeing again. This time I am almost certain that we will not be able to return. The world has more important problems than the war and our misery, and nobody cares about us,” Sulayman told Clash Report.
In 2003, Sulayman was forced to leave during the conflict - he was a child then. “I can’t recall how many times it happened. We realized that no place is safe when they said it was okay for us to return home. Many members of my family were killed.”
The Janjawids of RSF are notorious for their atrocities against non-Arab tribes, and Suleiman and his wife are Massalit. They left the country for that reason. “From al-Fasher to al-Geneina and further east, no one is safe from the RSF, Arab or non-Arab,” Suleiman said.
Nowhere is safe, from Al Geneina to Um Dukhun, and he has no plans to return from Chad. That is why he does not want to be photographed with his family.
“I apologize, but I can’t do that. I’ve heard there are people in the north who can help us obtain new Chadian ID cards, but they insist we can’t be photographed. If I’m seen, I’ll be recognized. We’re seeking a fresh start, and we can’t risk that.”
Sulayman took his wife and daughter and left. Most Darfurians refused to talk or be filmed. “If you are not a UN employee,” says a Chadian official, “no one will talk to you openly.” Indeed, people from Darfur do not want to talk or be seen in a photo or video.
The RSF began its operations in April 2023 to take revenge on non-Arab ethnics in Darfur (1). RSF militia attacked and massacred in Al Geneina (2), the capital of West Darfur, under the leadership of Abdel Rahman Juma (3). On 13 June 2023, Sudanese Red Crescent officials said they counted 2,000 bodies in Al Geneina and stopped because they were Overwhelmed (4).
Two days later, on 15 June, a large-scale massacre took place. UN sources estimate that between 10,000 and 15,000 people were killed in El Geneina(5). Al Geneina massacre was a massacre of Massalit (6). A population has been targeted in a deliberate and indiscriminate manner since its origin, language and religion. Abdel Rahman Juma participated in the El Geneina massacre, along with Idriss Hassan, Massar Aseel, Al Tijani Karshoum, and Moussa Angir (7).
What is RSF?
The rise of the Janjawid militias, which provide security for the camel trade in Darfur and compete with other regional tribes, took place during the Omar Bashir era (8). To control them, Omar Bashir integrated Janjawid militias into Sudan’s intelligence services, first as Border Protection Unit and then as Rapid Support Forces.
In fact, the RSF was formed as an umbrella organisation, after various local paramilitary forces, such as the Border Guards or the Central Reserve Police, the People’s Police and the Nomadic Police, were merged under various names (9).
It officially became part of the Sudanese army in 2014, when Omar Bashir appointed Muhammad Hamdan Dagalu as its commander in 2013. A special law reorganised the RSF in 2017. RSF has also been involved in conflicts in Yemen (10) and Libya (11). Dagalu and its militias took control of some gold mines (12) in Sudan’s Darfur and Kurdufan regions and established an effective paramilitary force. When street protests erupted in cities like Atbera, Khartoum and Kesele in late 2018 (13), Omar al- Bashir’s regime deployed RSF to Khartoum and other cities (14). RSF appeared to side with Omar al-Bashir during the protests. However, considering the international backlash against Bashir’s regime which coincided with the spread and intensification of street protests, Dagalu switched sides and played a key role in Bashir’s ouster. Dagalu maintained his position as second man in the Transitional Military Council, which was set up in April 2019 to govern the country, and in the Sovereignty Council, which took over the powers of the presidency in August 2019 in a military-civilian partnership (15).
Igniting the conflict
The newly established council declared that it would not accept a paramilitary force parallel to the Sudanese army and with its own economic resources and decided to integrate the RSF into the Sudanese army in 2022, and a framework agreement was signed (16).
Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s goal was to complete the integration of the RSF in two years, while Dagalu’s ten (17). On 13 April, as the negotiations intensified, RSF deployed a very large force near the airport and military base in Marawi.
Simultaneously, RSF troops attacked government buildings in Khartoum (18). The Marawi base move was a strategic action by the RSF, which had no air power, as the Merawi base was manned by Sudanese MIG-29 jets (19). Fierce clashes broke out between RSF and the Sudanese army on Saturday 15 April. At least 56 civilians were killed on the first day of clashes, according to a statement from the Sudanese Doctors’ Association (20).
Military capacities
The Sudanese army is among the 10 most powerful armies in Africa. It has nearly 200 thousand soldiers, 233 tanks, about 3 thousand 700 armoured vehicles, 389 artillery, missile and rocket batteries and 170 fighter jets, 45 of which are fighter jets (21).
The RSF has around 100,000 men, thousands of light vehicles, anti-aircraft, and artillery (22). The types of weapons in the RSF’s possession vary as they operate in different regional areas. The RSF has received arms support from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the Wagner Group (23), in addition to weapons received from the Sudanese army.
Wagner allegedly dropped weapons aid to the RSF by parachute during several flights with an unmarked Russian Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft between 13 and 19 April 2023. Supplies were reportedly disrupted on 20 April following an attack by the Sudanese army on the RSF detachment ‘Chevrolet Garrison’ in the area (24).
There are numerous reports and evidence that the UAE has provided the RSF with drones, antipersonnel and anti-tank ammunition and military logistics; met the financial needs of the Wagner elements acting with the RSF; and provided weapons for the RSF from third countries and groups, particularly Haftar forces in Libya and Russia.
Open-source data also shows that the UAE is supplying weapons to the Rapid Support Forces. In addition, Sudanese military officials showed international media drones and ammunition seized from the RSF. In pictures shared by Sudanese officials, labelled crates show ammunition manufactured in Serbia and destined for the UAE Armed Forces (25).
The Sudan Conflict Observatory tracked 2023 flights between June 2023 and May 2024 and concluded that they were transfers of weapons from the UAE to the RSF (26).
RSF’s war crimes
RSF has committed crimes of genocide in all the regions where it has been active since its establishment. According to the United Nations, an estimated 300,000 people were killed (27) and a further 2.5 million displaced (28) in the conflict between 2003 and 2008. The International Criminal Court opened investigations into genocidal violence, charging Omar Hassan al-Bashir with genocide and crimes against humaanity in 2009 (29). RSF was the perpetrator of these genocides.
“[The government soldiers] confiscated our belongings. They took our livestock. They beat the men. And then they raped us. They raped us in a group. Some women were raped by 8 or 10 men. Seventeen women were raped together. All of us were raped. Even the underage girls were raped,” Mahassan, 38, resident of the Golo area, said (30).
RSF militias continued the war crimes they had committed in Darfur in previous years. According to UCDP data, in the first 8 months of the war, between April 2023 and January 2024, the RSF killed 1746 civilians (31).
Early on June 15, 2023, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) attacked a makeshift medical clinic in West Darfur’s capital, El Geneina, where 25 injured patients were seeking treatment. Ali, who had been shot in the leg during a previous attack, described what happened: “They started shooting at us and killed everyone except me and a woman [who was also wounded]. They shot me in the right arm. I slumped over, pretending I was dead.”
Ali and the woman stayed in the clinic, surrounded by the corpses of the patients and medical workers, for ten hours, as the RSF continued their assault on the city. At around 5 p.m., another group of seven armed men in uniform entered the clinic. “One saw that I was alive and came up to me and smashed his hand on my broken leg,” Ali recalled.
“I said: ‘Please stop! Just kill me instead!’ He said: ‘We won’t kill you! We want to torture you, Nuba! We got rid of most of your family, and no one is here to care for you.’” Ali was rescued by his family hours later after the forces had left the clinic.
Shula, 35, who is from the Bargo tribe, said that in mid-June, at one of the checkpoints on the road, two young men told her, “If you were Massalit, we would not let you leave. The Massalit will not come home. But you are okay because you are Bargo.” (32)
According to data from the Uppsala International Conflict Data Centre (UCDP), the RSF forces’ crimes against civilians are concentrated in Gezira, south of the capital Khartoum, and El Feshir in Darfur. RSF attacks on the non-Arab Masalit tribe in Darfur can be characterised as genocide beyond war crimes. According to UCDP data, RSF militias killed at least 1,400 people in 2023, mostly members of the Masalit tribe, in the al-Geneina, Kureynik and Misterei areas of western Darfur.
One of the most common war crimes committed by RSF is rape. This crime is frequently committed by RSF militias in Darfur and the Gezira region, targeting women as well as underage girls and boys (33).
International reports estimate that very few of the victims of rape by RSF militias report it, due to the custom of social acceptance (34). Between January and October 2024, at least 34 civilians were raped by RSF militias (35)
During the same period, the RSF were responsible for the killing of 921 civilians. The RSF abducted 134 people, most of whom were used as sex slaves (36)
Last week, RSF militias killed at least 124 civilians in Gezira, south of the capital Khartoum, in an area of villages inhabited by unarmed civilians (37). 680,000 Sudanese refugees have crossed into Chad since this crisis began in April 2023 (38). Sudanese refugees live in very poor conditions in the camps left over from the UN’s previous Darfur experience.
According to OCHA, more than 49,000 Sudanese refugees arrived in the Wadi Fira area in the last two weeks of October because of attacks by RSF militias against civilians in the Darfur’s El Fasher and in Gezira, south of Khartoum. 19,500 of them arrived in the last few days (39).
Notes:
1- Sudan: Ethnic Cleansing in West Darfur, https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/05/09/sudan-ethnic-cleansing-west-darfur
2- The Massalit Will Not Come Home- Ethnic Cleansing and Crimes Against Humanity in El Geneina, West Darfur, Sudan,https://www.hrw.org/report/2024/05/09/massalit-will-not-come-home/ethnic-cleansing-and-crimes-against-humanity-el Shot-at while they drowned. Executed in the desert. Those who collected the bodies recount ‘one of the worst days’ in Darfur’s genocide-scarred history, https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/16/africa/darfur-sudan-geneina-massacre-account-cmd-intl/index.htm
3- The Sudanese commanders waging war on the Masalit, https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/sudan-politics-darfur-violence/
4- The Massalit Will Not Come Home- Ethnic Cleansing and Crimes Against Humanity in El Geneina, West Darfur, Sudan, https://www.hrw.org/report/2024/05/09/massalit-will-not-come-home/ethnic-cleansing-and-crimes-against-humanity-el
5- ‘What has happened is genocide’: Massacres in the Sudanese city of El Geneina, https://www.lemonde.fr/en/le-monde-africa/article/2024/01/29/what-has-happened-is-genocide-massacres-in-the-sudanese-city-of-el-geneina_6476140_124.html
6- Masalit in Sudan people group profile, https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/13578/SU
7- The Sudanese commanders waging war on the Masalit, https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/sudan-politics-darfur-violence/
8- Darfur Destroyed- Ethnic Cleansing by Government and Militia Forces in Western Sudan, https://www.hrw.org/report/2004/05/06/darfur-destroyed/ethnic-cleansing-government-and-militia-forces-western-sudan
9- Remote-control Breakdown: Sudanese Paramilitary Forces and Pro-government militias, Jérôme Tubiana, https://www.smallarmssurvey.org/resource/remote-control-breakdown-sudanese-paramilitary-forces-and-pro-government-militias-hsba
10- Sudan’s Controversial Rapid Support Forces Bolster Saudi Efforts in Yemen, Publication: Terrorism Monitor Volume: 15 Issue: 20, https://jamestown.org/program/sudans-controversial-rapid-support-forces-bolsters-saudi-efforts-yemen/
11- Soldiers of Fortune: The Evolving Role of Sudanese Militias in Libya, TRT WORLD Research Centre, https://researchcentre.trtworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Soldiers-of-FortuneSudan.pdf
12- Exclusive:Sudan militia leader grew rich by selling gold, https://www.reuters.com/article/world/exclusivesudan-militia-leader-grew-rich-by-selling-gold-idUSKBN1Y01DQ/
13- What prompted the protests in Sudan? https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/26/what-prompted-the-protests-in-sudan
14- Sudan’s military warns of RSF deployment in Khartoum, other cities, https://www.trtworld.com/africa/sudan-s-military-warns-of-rsf-deployment-in-khartoum-other-cities-67025
15- Who is ‘Hemedti’, general behind Sudan’s feared RSF force?, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/16/who-is-hemedti-the-puppeteer-behind-sudans-feared-rsf-fighters
16- Draft Political Framework Agreement, https://redress.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Framework-Agreement-Final-ENG-05122022.pdf
17- RSF declare firm commitment to the formation of single army in Sudan, https://sudantribune.com/article272389/#google_vignette
18- RSF control the presidential palace, Khartoum airport and Marawi Air Base, https://www.darfur24.com/en/2023/04/15/rsf-control-the-presidential-palace-khartoum-airport-and-marawi-air-base/
19- Sudan paramilitary RSF and army clash, Egypt’s MiG-29 captured, https://www.military.africa/2023/04/sudan-paramilitary-rsf-and-army-clash-egypts-mig-29-captured/
20- Sudan: Army and RSF battle over key sites, leaving 56 civilians dead, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-65284945
21- 2024 Sudan Military Strength, https://www.globalfirepower.com/country-military-strength-detail.php?country_id=sudan
22- Who is fighting in Sudan? https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/who-are-sudans-rapid-support-forces-2023-04-13/
23- Exclusive: Evidence emerges of Russia’s Wagner arming militia leader battling Sudan’s army, https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/20/africa/wagner-sudan-russia-libya-intl/index.html
24- Russia’s Wagner Arming Militia in Sudan; Plans in Motion for Biden Announcement; California’s Wildflower Takeover; Death Row Inmate Appeals to the Supreme Court. Aired 6:30-7a ET, https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/ctmo/date/2023-04-21/segment/02
25- 25 Sudan’s civil war fueled by secret arms shipments from UAE and Iran, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/10/15/sudan-war-weapons-uae-iran/
26- Foreign Facilitators of Weapons Fueling Sudan’s Civil War, https://hub.conflictobservatory.org/portal/sharing/rest/content/items/1f62fa12bb9848f287ebe91751ddc97f/data
27- UN says Darfur dead may be 300,000; Sudan denies, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sudan-darfur-un/u-n-says-darfurdead-may-be-300000-as-sudan-denies-idUSN2230854320080422/
28- Crisis in Darfur, https://www.hrw.org/news/2008/04/25/q-crisis-darfur
29- Al Bashir Case, ICC, The Prosecutor v. Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir, https://www.icc-cpi.int/darfur/albashir
30- “Men With No Mercy”, Rapid Support Forces Attacks against Civilians in Darfur, Sudan, https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/09/09/men-no-mercy/rapid-support-forces-attacks-against-civilians-darfur-sudan
31- One-Sided Violence in Sudan, Actor RSF, Data by UCDP, https://ucdp.uu.se/actor/8635
32- “The Massalit Will Not Come Home”, Ethnic Cleansing and Crimes Against Humanity in El Geneina, West Darfur, Sudan, https://www.hrw.org/report/2024/05/09/massalit-will-not-come-home/ethnic-cleansing-and-crimes-against-humanity-el
33- Sudan’s RSF and allies sexually abused victims from 8-75 years, UN mission says, https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/sudans-rsf-allies-sexually-abused-victims-8-75-years-un-mission-says-2024-10-29/
34- Women raped in war-hit Sudan die by suicide, activists say, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8xpqvz0e88o
35- Statistics obtained by the author from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) database
36- Statistics obtained by the author from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) database
37- 124 civilians killed in Rapid Support Forces attack on Sudanese state of Gezira, https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/124-civilians-killed-in-rapid-support-forces-attack-on-sudanese-state-of-gezira/3375800
38- IRC warns of escalating humanitarian needs in eastern Chad following massive influx of Sudanese refugees, https://reliefweb.int/report/chad/irc-warns-escalating-humanitarian-needs-eastern-chad-following-massive-influx-sudanese-refugees
39- IRC warns of escalating humanitarian needs in eastern Chad following massive influx of Sudanese refugees, https://reliefweb.int/report/chad/irc-warns-escalating-humanitarian-needs-eastern-chad-following-massive-influx-sudanese-refugees