Smoke rises in Khartoum, Sudan, on May 1, 2023, as clashes continue between the Sudanese National Army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia. (Photo by: Ahmed Satti/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Two years ago on Friday, at around 6am, two loud bangs were heard in the village of Al Sereiha in Sudan's northern Gezira state. Residents suspected that angry Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters had come for revenge.
The region has been under tension since October 20, when one of Gezira's top RSF leaders, Abuagra Keikal, defected to the Sudanese army.
More explosions followed, and soon the militia entered the village, overran it, and captured the men.
“They started beating us and humiliating us,” said a resident who gave his name as Abdulnoor. He was speaking from a shelter in New Halfa, where his elderly mother took refuge after paying a ransom for her release to a militia.
“She agreed to abandon her home and farm and leave.''
Before Abdulnoor's family was forced to flee, the militia executed several men in front of everyone in the center of the village.
“They dragged 10 men in front of us and killed them all at once,” Abdulnoor said.
The Wad Madani Resistance Committee reported that 124 people were killed in Al-Sireiha, one of the worst massacres since the outbreak of war between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces. Wad Madani is the capital of Gezira province.
The commission also said the RSF attacked the town of al-Hilaliya in eastern Gezira, resulting in the deaths of civilians, looting, and the capture of many others.
A communications blackout has been imposed in areas still controlled by the RSF, making it difficult to determine the exact number of deaths in affected areas. However, local media reports say RSF militias have attacked dozens of villages in eastern and northern Gezira since October 20, ransoming hundreds of people, and ransom videos have been posted on social media in the past two weeks. It was done.
In one, militiamen in RSF uniforms threaten to execute prisoners unless a ransom is paid.
Videos of the aftermath of the violence in Al Shireiha are also being circulated on social media.
Bodies wrapped in white clothes are shown lying on the ground as the chronicler says: “These are the martyrs of al-Sireiha – more than 100.”
Sudanese living abroad are also beginning to receive shocking reports of what happened to their families in Gezira.
Ola Labib learns that the militia killed her non-verbal autistic cousin because he could not answer their questions.
“His mother screamed that he couldn't speak. They didn't care. They bludgeoned him to death,” she said.
Other videos show large groups of displaced people on the move, including many children separated from their families.
More than 120,000 people have fled the area amid widespread militia attacks, according to the United Nations. Local media have reported large-scale campaigns of sexual violence by paramilitary groups.
According to sudan tribuneLocal groups in Rufaa, eastern Gezira, say up to 37 rapes have been reported in the town in just five days. Some survivors say that women in the attacked villages committed suicide by drowning rather than being raped.
These reports of sexual violence are consistent with extensive United Nations findings. In a report released on October 23, the United Nations said the RSF and its allied militias committed “widespread sexual and gender-based violence, rape, sexual slavery, kidnapping and recruitment, and the use of children in hostilities.” He said he was committing a crime.
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