Last month, a commander of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary defected to the Sudanese Armed Forces. In retaliation, the UAE-backed RSF laid siege to his home town in eastern Gezira State – targeting civilians. There are now reports that 13 people have since been shot dead. Locals say the RSF is also poisoning scarce food supplies, resulting in over 50 deaths so far.
Ethnic violence has been a grim feature of the vicious cycles of wars in Sudan since its independence in 1956, particularly in places such as Darfur, the Nuba Mountains and South Sudan (before its cessation). Both the SAF and the RSF are accused of atrocities, although genocidal violence in the current war is significantly associated with the UAE-backed RSF.
The latest violence comes on the back of a spate of alleged RSF atrocities near the capital, Khartoum. Commenting on these, Sudan’s UN Humanitarian Coordinator Clementine Nkweta-Salami said she was ‘shocked and deeply appalled that human rights violations of the kind witnessed in Darfur last year – such as r*pe, targeted attacks, sexual violence and mass killings – are being repeated in Gezira State,’ adding that ‘these are atrocious crimes.’
(Her reference is to September 2023, when RSF allied forces buried over 1,000 bodies in ‘hastily dug mass graves’ in West Darfur’s Geneina city.)
Sources:
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/sudan-rsf-kill-scores-civilians-gezira-commander-defects
https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/10/1156176
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/sudan-politics/