Relatives and rights groups have accused fighters from an Islamist paramilitary force aligned with the Sudanese army of executing dozens of young men on suspicion of cooperating with the Rapid Support Forces in the Khartoum area.
The alleged killings occurred in September after fighters crossed a bridge over the Nile River into the city of Khartoum North from neighbouring Omdurman after weeks of trying.
According to local people, fighters from the Al-Bara’ ibn Malik brigade arrested the men in the Halfaya neighbourhood. They said some of the men were killed immediately, while others were taken into custody at the Surkab military base in Omdurman.
The greater Khartoum area consists of the cities of Khartoum, Khartoum North and Omdurman. Most of Omdurman is under army control, but parts of the west of the city are held by the RSF, a paramilitary force. In recent months the army has launched a campaign to try to take back territory held by the RSF in Khartoum and Khartoum North.
On the day of the alleged killings, local people said Islamic jurists were seen travelling with the Al-Bara’ ibn Malik and issuing fatwas to shoot and kill men accused of cooperating with the RSF. The fatwas were based on the testimonies of two men living in the area who allegedly said the men were cooperating with the RSF.
Asmaa Mubarak* said one of her cousins had been killed. She said the 18-year-old and his immediate family, who were from Khartoum North, had fled south to the city of Wad Madani when the war between the army and the RSF broke out in April 2023. They later returned to the Khartoum tri-city area to live with relatives in Omdurman.
According to Mubarak, her cousin decided to cross into Khartoum North to guard the family house from looters on hearing the fighting there had subsided.
She said: “His father asked him to remain with them, but he insisted on going back, telling them that all his peers were there guarding their houses.” Mubarak also claimed that her cousin’s father was told by local people that if he tried to enter Halfaya to retrieve his son’s body for burial he too would be killed.
Mubarak said the family had decided to say that her cousin had died from a stray bullet because they were worried about the social stigma of rumours that he had been working with the RSF.
A South Sudanese refugee called John was killed on the same day, according to Mubarak. “John grew up in the area and his family could not flee the country, they could not afford to do so,” she said. “The Al-Bara battalion came in and accused him of working with the RSF too. He was called a slave.”
Mubarak said she was worried about people living in Shambat, another neighbourhood in Khartoum North that could fall to the army, unless “people intervene to protect those who could not flee but had to stay under the mercy of the RSF”.
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Another woman said one of her brothers was killed during the army’s advance into Halfaya and another was taken to the Surkab base – both on the basis of alleged cooperation with the RSF. The woman said both were civilians and that they had not cooperated with the RSF.
The Sudan Democratic Lawyers Front, a rights group, said of the alleged killings: “We think this is a clear war crime and we demand that a comprehensive investigation is opened to find out who the perpetrators are.”
A spokesperson for the UN office of the high commissioner for human rights said last month that it was investigating reports that dozens of civilians had been killed in the greater Khartoum area. They added that the commissioner’s Sudan expert, Radhouane Nouicer, had repeatedly raised concerns about the protection of civilians with the Sudanese authorities.
The Al-Bara’ ibn Malik brigade has been involved in the Sudanese civil war since it began. It is led by young Islamist men who were part of the Islamic movement that ruled the country for 30 years under the former president Omar al-Bashir. It has been contacted for comment about the Khartoum North allegations.
Brig Gen Nabil Abdallah, a spokesperson for the Sudanese army, said army soldiers had not been involved in any alleged extrajudicial killings in Khartoum North. He also accused Tagadum – a pro-civilian-power coalition which is involved in peace negotiations – of orchestrating a smear campaign against the army and echoing RSF propaganda.
The war between the RSF and the regular army, which erupted in April 2023, has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people, displaced millions, and left the north-east African country on the brink of famine. The army and the RSF have been accused of targeting civilians in the course of the fighting.
On Monday a high-level UN official warned that the international community had failed to grasp the seriousness of the crisis. Diplomatic efforts “are not commensurate with the needs”, said Mamadou Dian Balde, who is coordinating the UN refugee agency’s response to the Sudan crisis. He told Agence France-Presse that he didn’t think the world realises “the gravity of the Sudanese crisis”, nor its impact.
* Names have been changed
