The murder of 31 civilians in Omdurman’s Salha neighborhood at the end of April has prompted Sudan’s government to repeat its call for the international community to label the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) a terrorist organization.
“This terrorist crime by the militia has shaken the human conscience,” Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in statement.
While individual RSF commanders are under international sanctions, the RSF is not.
The call to define the RSF as terrorists echoed one that Sudan’s de facto leader, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, made in 2024. Like that one, this call produced little reaction among other nations. Critics say al-Burhan’s actions are an attempt to legitimize actions by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), which also have been accused of war crimes.
Analysts say that lack of international attention has created a sense of impunity among fighters on both sides. However, RSF fighters have been especially egregious in executing, sexually assaulting and committing other violence against civilians in areas under their control.
“This isn’t an isolated event,” Sudanese analyst El Bashir Idris recently told the Ayin Network. “The RSF employs terror as a tool of governance, using execution and ethnic targeting to instill fear.”
The Salha killings took place after the SAF drove RSF fighters out of Khartoum and other parts of Omdurman. RSF fighters posted a video on X of a group of young men and teenagers sitting in a group on the ground.
In one video segment, a militia member shouts, “Don’t beat them, just kill them!” Another says the killings are being conducted “with precision,” according to the pro-government Sudanese Echo, which reposted the video on its own X site and translated the dialogue.
Other videos show dead victims piled on top of one another as an RSF fighter walks among the bodies and even steps on the head of one victim.
“These videos, proudly filmed by the killers themselves, leave no room for denial. The crimes are clear. The horror is undeniable,” Sudanese Echo posted on X.
Sudanese Echo noted that RSF leaders recently appointed Maj. Gen. Abdelrahman Juma Barkallah to command those sections of Omdurman still under RSF control. Barkallah’s history of overseeing violence against West Darfur’s Masalit people “clearly signals the militia’s intent to escalate violence against civilians,” Sudanese Echo writers posted.
Now in its third year, the conflict between the SAF and RSF has killed tens of thousands of Sudanese, forced 15 million people from the homes and left many of the country’s cities in ruins.
Since December, the SAF has succeeded in pushing the RSF out of large parts of southeastern and central Sudan, often with the help of Turkish drones. As the RSF loses ground, it becomes more ruthless in areas it controls, frequently accusing civilians of belonging to militias. Torture and executions, such as what occurred in Salha, are common.
“The executions were filmed for a reason — to send a message that no one is safe,” Idris told Ayin Network.
By broadcasting public executions in civilian neighborhoods, the RSF puts its ability to act with impunity on full display, according to Idris.
Al-Burhan’s government argued that the videos of the Salha executions are reason alone to declare the RSF a terrorist organization. Observers note that, although al-Burhan accuses the RSF of terrorism, his own forces and their allies have committed similar atrocities in territory they have reclaimed from the RSF.
The Salha killings came after reports of extrajudicial executions in southern Khartoum by the SAF-allied al-Baraa Brigade, according to Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. RSF fighters said those they killed were part of al-Baraa, an accusation the dead men’s relatives denied.
Analyst Hamid Khallafallah told the Ayin Network that killings such as those in Salha are calculated to undermine public faith in the SAF as it advances into RSF-held areas.
“For instance, around Khartoum now, the Army claims the area is safe and people can return — but RSF has attacked Salha and other parts of Omdurman, sending a message that SAF has not won,” Khallafallah said.