*Footage shows summary executions on streets of Sudanese capital*
*People targeted for staying in areas that fell under RSF control*
*UN says perpetrators must be held to account for ‘horrific’ crimes*
FRI 4 APR -- Civilians and local aid workers have been targeted in a wave of reprisal killings by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) since its troops recaptured Khartoum from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Last month, after making steady gains in the areas surrounding the capital, SAF retook the presidential palace and succeeded in driving RSF forces out of the city. The killings - many of them summary executions - follow a pattern of reprisals against civilians accused by SAF-aligned forces of collaborating with the RSF after an area has been retaken.
A member of Khartoum’s community-run Emergency Response Rooms (ERR) said in testimony sent to Avaaz that SAF troops arrived in eastern Khartoum on 26th March, the day after the RSF withdrew.
“We have witnessed people beheaded or shot after a brief field trial and others beaten on that day,” they said.
NB: Some of the videos on the links in the following section are extremely graphic. Please watch with caution.
One video from the area shows a man with a cast and surgical pins on his leg being dragged through the street by a group of soldiers believed to belong to a SAF affiliate. The men shout at and question him before moving him to a ditch and shooting him dead. A separate clip shows a soldier beheading the man before holding his head aloft and casting it aside.
In a second video, a large crowd is seen gathering outside a cafe before a soldier in SAF uniform shoots dead a man wearing civilian clothing. Avaaz has geolocated the incident to a cafe on Siteen St, a wide road running through eastern Khartoum.
The ERR member said people accused of collaborating with the RSF, including women, had been paraded around East Khartoum in trucks, though added that it was not clear what had happened to them. They also said other ERR members had been named in social media posts accusing those listed of being “collaborators” and calling for them to be targeted.
“There is an urgent need for all international and national actors to urge SAF and aligned paramilitaries to refrain from summary executions and any manner of violence against people,” the ERR member said.
Another video, believed to have been shot in Khartoum, showed two men being forced to crawl across a road while being repeatedly struck with what appeared to be either a baton or a machete.
A final clip shot in the Mayo neighbourhood of southern Khartoum showed dozens of unarmed men in civilian clothing being led along a road with their hands tied behind their backs, flanked by armed soldiers and being repeatedly whipped.
A journalist on the ground told Avaaz they had witnessed one person being shot dead in Burri, northern Khartoum for staying in the area while it was under RSF control.
On Thursday, the UN Human Rights Office said it had “reviewed multiple horrific videos posted on social media since 26th March” showing civilians being executed in cold blood. It said that, in one instance, at least 20 civilians, including one woman, were reportedly killed by SAF and affiliated militias in the Janoub Al Hezam area of southern Khartoum.
“I am utterly appalled by the credible reports of numerous incidents of summary executions of civilians in several areas of Khartoum, on apparent suspicions that they were collaborating with the Rapid Support Forces,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.
“Individual perpetrators, as well as those with command responsibility, must be held accountable.”
Recent months have seen numerous reports of attacks on civilians in areas previously under RSF control as SAF gained territory and advanced on Khartoum.
In January, SAF forces retook Wad Madani, a strategically important city around 170km south-east of the capital that had spent 14 months under RSF control. Footage verified by the Centre for Information Resilience showed SAF forces perpetrating a series of reprisal attacks in the city while claiming to be targeting RSF collaborators.
The surrounding Gezira state also saw attacks against the Kanabi communities, agricultural settlements typically home to people of non-Arab ethnic identity. Members of the communities were similarly accused of collaborating with the RSF, and last month a joint statement by 21 civil society groups said the Kanabi had been the victims of “targeted killings, enforced disappearance..., and displacement of residents” with the “characteristics of an ethnic cleansing”.
The UN said the same month that at least 18 people, including one woman, had been killed by SAF affiliates in seven separate incidents in Khartoum North.
In February, Amnesty International said it had received reports of lists being circulated of supposed “partners of the RSF” that included the names of politicians, activists, medical workers, public prosecutors, and members of protest groups.
The latest violence comes as the UK prepares to host a conference of foreign ministers in London on April 15th intended to identify steps to help resolve the conflict. Countries represented at the ministerial include many accused of arming and funding the warring parties.
Footage & images
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is building an earthen wall around El Fasher to create a “kill box” and prevent civilians fleeing the besieged city, satellite imagery suggests.
People caught trying to smuggle food into the besieged city of El Fasher are being “executed on sight” by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to one civilian.
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