Both Sides in Sudan, Accused of Atrocities, Refuse to Accept Blame

ADF STAFF

Peter Kiano, a math professor from South Sudan, had just finished eating breakfast at Khartoum’s Souq Abu Hamama when fighters with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) arrived.

Moments later, with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) nearby, the RSF fighters told everyone to lie on the floor. Kiano chose to run. An RSF fighter shot him twice in the head as he fled, killing him.

Kiano was one of thousands of Sudanese civilians caught up in the relentless violence between the SAF led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudan’s de facto leader, and his RSF rival known as Hemedti.

Since April, the two men have fought for control of the country, leaving a trail of death, rapes, indiscriminate bombings, ethnic violence and other atrocities in their wake. Although the two sides are closely matched in personnel, the SAF dominates the skies and uses heavy artillery. The RSF consists of land forces armed with anti-aircraft weapons, including some smuggled in from Libya by Russia’s Wagner Group mercenaries.

More than 9,000 Sudanese civilians have been killed, and nearly 5 million have fled their homes. More than 1 million are sheltering in neighboring countries, such as Chad. Clashes between the SAF and RSF recently occurred in areas surrounding the Hasahisa displaced persons camp in Central Darfur, cutting it off from aid.

Each side has accused the other of committing acts of brutality against civilians while claiming their own actions are justified. For example, al-Burhan and Hemedti traded blame for bombing the Ethiopian embassy in Khartoum in early October.

This month, the United Nations Human Rights Council launched an investigation into the scale and scope of the violence.

Human rights advocates say each side is liable for atrocities. The RSF has been blamed for sexual assaults, and the SAF is accused of bombing markets, residential buildings and other areas where RSF fighters have taken refuge in the city. Among the deadliest of those attacks was an airstrike on Khartoum’s Quoro market that killed 46 people.

“Civilians in Sudan are bearing the brunt of the ongoing devastating conflict between the Sudan Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces and their allied militias,” Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s senior director for research, advocacy, policy and campaigns, said in a statement.

“Parties to the conflict have also committed war crimes, including sexual violence and the targeting of communities based on their ethnic identity,” she added.

Amnesty International is just one of the human rights groups documenting the atrocities being committed in Sudan. Islamic Relief is another.

“Families can’t access food or medicine, women and girls live in constant fear of attack, and communities are being trapped in poverty and debt,” said Elsadig Elnour, Islamic Relief’s country director in Sudan, told Kenya’s The East African.

In the Darfur region, RSF fighters have attacked non-Arab communities, in some cases as SAF forces have stood by. In El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, RSF fighters entered the Medical Rescue Center clinic and killed Dr. Adam Zakaria Is’haq along with 13 other people who were patients there, witnesses told Amnesty International.

“He was treating sick people at a small clinic when he was killed because the main hospital in El Geneina was destroyed by the same armed militia and RSF in late April,” one of the doctor’s colleagues told Amnesty International. “He was shot in the chest. He left behind his wife and two young boys aged four and six.”