Sudan: War Crimes in South Kordofan

• The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied Arab militias carried out numerous abuses against civilians in Habila county in Sudan’s South Kordofan state from December 2023 to March 2024, during conflict with the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement–North.
• The abuses constitute war crimes and included killings, rapes, and abductions of ethnic Nuba residents, as well as the looting and destruction of homes. They led to mass displacement, turning Habila and neighboring Fayu into ghost towns.
• The United Nations and the African Union should urgently deploy a mission to protect civilians in Sudan.

(Nairobi, December 10, 2024) – The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) killed scores of civilians, and injured, raped, and abducted many others in waves of attacks in Habila and Fayu, two towns in Sudan’s South Kordofan state, between December 2023 and March 2024, Human Rights Watch said today. The attacks on mainly ethnic Nuba residents, which had not been widely reported, constitute war crimes.

“The Rapid Support Forces’ abuse of civilians in South Kordofan is emblematic of continuing atrocities across Sudan,” said Jean-Baptiste Gallopin, senior crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch. “These new findings underscore the urgent need for the deployment of a mission to protect civilians in Sudan.”

For 16 days in October, Human Rights Watch researchers visited areas of the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan controlled by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement–North (SPLM-N), a primarily ethnic Nuba armed group that has controlled parts of the state for decades. Researchers visited sites hosting tens of thousands of mostly Nuba displaced people who had fled areas controlled by the parties fighting for control of the country – the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF – in South Kordofan and elsewhere in Sudan. 

Researchers interviewed 70 displaced people, 40 of them survivors of RSF attacks on Habila, Fayu, and neighboring villages, and analyzed satellite imagery of the area from December 2023 to October 2024. Researchers also spoke with 24 other people, including aid workers, local officials, and others with knowledge of the area.

Human Rights Watch documented the killings of 56 unarmed people in these attacks, including 11 women and 1 child, based on interviews with witnesses. The RSF killed people both execution-style in homes and by shooting them on the streets. The actual figures may be significantly higher, given that most people fled in various directions after the attacks.

Human Rights Watch also documented the rape of 79 women and girls, including in the context of sexual slavery, based on interviews with survivors, witnesses, and relatives and friends of the victims.

On November 25, Human Rights Watch sent a detailed email summary of its findings with specific questions to Lieutenant Colonel Al-Fateh Qurashi, the RSF spokesperson, but had not received a response at time of publication.

Since the start of the conflict between the SAF and the RSF in April 2023, hundreds of thousands of people have fled to SPLM-N-held territory, which experienced conflict throughout the 2010s but is currently one of the most stable parts of Sudan. There have been clashes between the SAF, RSF, and SPLM-N in other parts of South Kordofan bordering areas controlled by the SAF and the RSF. Among the affected areas were the towns of Habila and Fayu, and neighboring villages, all in Habila county.

RSF fighters attacked the town of Habila, held by the SAF, on December 31, 2023. On that day and in the following days, the RSF killed at least 35 civilians and unarmed fighters in deliberate and indiscriminate attacks, injured other civilians, and raped women and girls. They also looted extensively from civilians.

Three women said the RSF killed at least eight people, including their relatives, in the family compound where their extended family had taken refuge in al-Safa neighborhood early in the morning of December 31.

“When the RSF arrived, they told the men, ‘Get your weapons out for us!’” one woman said. “The men said they did not have guns. Then the RSF said, ‘Bring out your money.’ The men said they had no money. That’s when the RSF started shooting them.”

Four survivors said most residents fled Habila after the RSF took over and that civilians were shot and killed while fleeing. The RSF also executed unarmed SAF soldiers and policemen, including in their homes. Civilians who remained faced grave abuses at the hands of the RSF, who looted, raped women and girls, and killed men and boys who tried to intervene. Some who had initially fled returned a few days later to collect their belongings and found the town had been pillaged.

On January 1, the RSF attacked Fayu, 17 kilometers south, also under SAF control. This was the first of several attacks in which the RSF killed at least 21 civilians, abducted at least 18 women and girls and 5 men, and looted and destroyed civilian property.

A woman from Fayu, who fled along with other Nuba residents after the initial attack on January 1, said she returned a few weeks later to collect her property. “There was nothing [left],” she said. “Everything was destroyed, looted completely … They took my bed, my bedsheets, our tractor with the trailer, our clothes, and all our property inside [our house] … even the door.”

Tens of thousands of people fled their homes as attacks, including on civilians, continued throughout the region, and as the RSF and its allied Arab militias and the SPLM-N clashed in attempts to wrest control of Habila and Fayu. As of April 2024, over 47,000 people had been internally displaced from Habila county to other areas of South Kordofan, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Satellite imagery shows signs of looting and burning in Habila and Fayu and fire damage in four nearby villages. Human Rights Watch geolocated a video in one of these villages, Tungul, located 13 kilometers southwest from Habila, showing men wearing RSF uniforms riding on a motorbike in the village. Houses on fire can be seen along the road. Analysis of satellite imagery shows that the houses were burned sometime between February 11 and 14, while thermal anomaly data captured a fire over Tungul on February 12.

The deliberate killings of civilians, rape and other forms of sexual violence, pillaging, and the deliberate destruction of civilian property are war crimes.

Human Rights Watch has previously documented grave abuses by the RSF and allied militias in other places in Sudan, including war crimes and crimes against humanity as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing in West Darfur.

The United Nations and the African Union have not taken concrete steps to protect civilians. In an October 28, 2024 report to the UN Security Council, which made recommendations for the protection of civilians, the UN Secretary-General acknowledged that Sudanese civilians and local and international human rights groups were calling for the creation of a civilian protection mission, but did not propose how it could be deployed. 

“The United Nations and the African Union should take decisive steps to deploy a mission that can protect Sudanese civilians from rampaging forces,” Gallopin said. “A mission to protect civilians could deploy to areas where civilians have found refuge but where humanitarian needs are dire, such as the areas of South Kordofan we visited.”

For more information on the abuses in Habila and Fayu and surrounding villages, please see below. The names of some of those interviewed have been withheld or replaced with pseudonyms for their protection.

Human Rights Watch findings on sexual violence will be published in a separate upcoming report.

Killings, Injuries, Looting in Habila

December 31, 2023

Rapid Support Forces killed civilians, unarmed SAF soldiers, and policemen when they attacked Habila on December 31, 2023.

Ruba, 20, said Arab men in civilian clothing entered her compound that morning and ordered her and other civilians in the house to hand over their valuables. She said the men then asked her husband if he was a soldier. When he said he was a civilian, they asked him his tribe. She said when he replied he was Nuba, “[The RSF forces] said, ‘Nubas, we are angry at you, today is your day,’ and then they shot him,” killing him on the spot.

Two other witnesses said a man in RSF uniform shot and killed Abir, a 25-year-old woman, and her relative Abderrahman, and shot and injured another man in Abir’s home, also on the morning of December 31. Abir’s neighbor Hawa Idris, who was in the home at the time, said she saw the assailant shoot Abir, who was on her bed, in the chest, and that Abir and Abderrahman died on the spot. Hawa Idris said Abir had given birth four days earlier, and that her baby, Mohammed, survived the attack but died of hunger five days later.

Nafisa Abdulrahim, a nurse, said the RSF summarily executed her 18-year-old nephew, Manadil, along with a group of men in the neighborhood of Tee on December 31. Manadil’s 34-year-old brother Sadik was shot and injured in the leg, but pretended to be dead and survived to tell her the story. He was one of just two survivors, Nafisa said.

The RSF also shot and killed civilians who were trying to flee. Abdu Jalil Jumaa said he was carrying his children and running for his life, when he saw assailants on motorbikes wearing headscarves shoot and kill his neighbor, a driver in his late 20s named Youssef Omer, who was also fleeing. “They came with motorbikes, and stopped and started shooting,” Abdu Jalil said.

During the early stages of the attack, the RSF clashed with SAF forces located on and near the mountain abutting the town. But they also killed unarmed members of the SAF and policemen in residential neighborhoods. Zahra Musa said RSF forces rounded up three of her neighbors, all unarmed soldiers with the SAF, from their home and summarily executed them. She said when she and her relatives came out of her home at 5 a.m. on hearing gunfire, they encountered RSF fighters wearing uniforms and turbans:

My neighbors were soldiers.… They are siblings, in their early 20s … [They were wearing] normal civilian clothes because at that time they were at home.… The RSF … lined them up, kneeling on the ground with their arms tied behind their backs … They said, ‘You, you join us!’ The soldiers’ response was, ‘We have sworn [allegiance to] the SAF, we cannot join you!’… [Then] they shot them in front of us.… One in the head, one in the chest, and one in the stomach.… And we cried when they were shot. [The RSF] threatened to shoot us if we cried again. They said, ‘We are here to rule you. We have already chased [away] the SAF, and we are the ones who will rule the area.’

Ijla Um Umr said her 30-year-old brother Mujahid, a policeman, was shot at the police station by RSF fighters alongside another policeman in his 20s, known as Kabbashi, and a 40-year-old guard named Jaafar. All three died, though Mujahid initially survived his injury and described the incident to Ijla. Two other relatives of Mujahid confirmed the killings.

The RSF continued to carry out grave abuses, including killings, after it defeated the SAF in Habila, witnesses said.

“After they chased away the SAF from the base, they came back to the [residential areas],” said Peter Gadoul, a 47-year-old farmer. He said 13 men in RSF uniform came to his house and started beating him with sticks, asking, “Are you a soldier? Are you a rebel?” They looted the house, stealing 7 million Sudanese Pounds (about US$3,200), 40 bags of sorghum, a barrel, and all clothing, and then burned down the house.

Waleed Kafi, 40, said that an hour after the fighting ended, a group of seven RSF fighters in uniform came to his neighborhood in cars and on motorbikes. They entered his house and looted his “clothes, bedding, cooking pots, and everything else,” he said. “One said to me, ‘If you speak, we will shoot you.’” Then, Waleed said, the RSF killed his two brothers, Muhammad Kafi, 50, and Adam Silik, 40, both farmers “I heard the gunshots, and I went running and found them dead in their rooms.”

Mahmoud Abdelaziz, who fled and observed the attack from a distance, said he saw the RSF “move from house to house,” taking “what they need” and then burning down the houses.

Satellite imagery captured on December 31, 2023, shows a plume of smoke emanating from a military position on the eastern side of the town. Thermal anomalies are also detected in the same location, as well as in a residential area just south of the market. 

January 1 and the Following Days

Grave abuses continued in the following days. RSF fighters killed, beat, and raped civilians, looted property, and destroyed houses. The RSF carried out further abuses against civilians in February and March during episodic fighting with the SPLM-N, which tried to take control of Habila.

Mamzula Dawood said when she returned with her family to Habila on January 1 to try to recover some of her belongings, RSF men entered the compound of her house and killed her son, Al-Ajab, 25, and 85-year-old uncle, Abderrahman.

Nesrin said that on January 3, six men in beige uniform came to her house on motorbikes. She recalled them saying, “Nuba, today is your day!” She said the six men raped her and shot her 40-year-old husband and 25-year-old son who tried to protect her, killing them on the spot. “They were saying, ‘You Nuba, we will rape you and your husbands.’”

Hasina could not leave for two weeks after the attack and said that during that time, six men in khaki and green uniform came to her house. “It was clear that they were the RSF … [they were] the only forces in the city at that point. [They] came to our house and tried to steal our cattle,” she said.

Hasina said when her husband Daniel, 40, yelled at them to stop, one of the men shot him, killing him on the spot. The men then left with the family’s cattle. In the following days, men wearing the same uniforms came and gang raped her, returning every day until the SPLM-N took control of the city about a month later, she said.

Bakhita Angalo said she returned to Habila about three days after the attack to find that her house had been looted. “They took our goats, our beds, and everything,” she said. Jamila Nyaman also returned to Habila at that time and found “everything had been looted.” With other women, she fled toward Kurtala, in SPLM-N territory, but 10 men in beige and green uniform stopped them. She said, “They made us lie on the ground and demanded our money … and they beat my mother who was with us. She is still suffering from the pain.”

The SPLM-N reportedly attacked Habila on February 9 and retook control on February 10, allegedly causing the displacement of about 15,000 people. In late February, the RSF reportedly attacked Habila again, allegedly causing 40,000 people to flee.

Thermal anomaly data captured fires on February 9 and satellite imagery from the same day and February 10 shows new burn marks on the outskirts of Habila, including in residential areas. A large burn mark appeared on a residential area on the eastern side of the town between February 20 and 22. Satellite imagery shows new burned residential areas between March 8 and 10 in the south of the hill overlooking the town.

During the attack in March, Salah Bashir said, “the RSF prevented civilians from fleeing. They had checkpoints at the entrances to the town and would shoot at any civilians trying to flee.” That day, he said he found his neighbor Kunda, who was in his 60s, lying dead outside his house, along with six other civilians who had been sheltering there.

Since then, Habila appears to have become a ghost town. “There are no people there now,” said Abdu Jalil Jumaa. Satellite imagery from July to October shows vegetation progressively overgrowing in the town. Areas usually clear of vegetation during the rainy season in October – paths, courtyards around the houses, and part of the marketplace – are visibly overgrown on a satellite image from October 11.

High resolution satellite imagery from November 12 shows the extent of the damage and indications of looting in the town. In areas where burn marks were visible in February and March, most of the houses and fences have been destroyed. Elsewhere in the town, in areas without clear signs of burning, the majority of corrugated metal rooftops have been removed from the buildings.

Killings, Looting, Abductions in Fayu

Witnesses said the RSF and local Arab militias repeatedly attacked Fayu, a small, majority-Nuba town south of Habila, in January and February, with killings, indiscriminate shooting, and abductions, including of women and girls who were later held in conditions of sexual slavery. The crimes of sexual slavery are documented in an upcoming Human Rights Watch report.

The RSF first attacked Fayu on January 1, when it was under SAF control, residents said. Ibrahim Bakit said nobody tried to defend the town and that 15 civilians were killed. He recalled that SAF soldiers had already left when the RSF targeted their base. While hiding at home, he saw civilians moving around in panic. He said he saw four RSF fighters tell two of his neighbors – a 35-year-old trader and a 25-year-old driver – to come out of their home:

Two RSF fighters knew these people, and two others didn’t know them.… The four of them disagreed. ‘Can we kill these people?,’ ‘No, we know them!’ One of the neighbors, they shot him with a gun. They stabbed the other with a bayonet, then took an axe and killed him.

Kaltuma Idris, 45, said when the RSF attack started, she tried to flee with other civilians. RSF fighters were moving around the village, and she saw a fighter shoot a man in his 60s in the head and shoot another in his 70s, killing them on the spot. Her 25-year-old son was hit in the leg by a bullet that ricocheted, she said.

Hania said that she and eight other civilians encountered gunmen in lightly colored uniforms, heads covered with scarves, riding five green vehicles. “They chased us and opened fire on us,” she said. “I laid down. They shot my uncle … [who] was 50 … and the other man who was with us, [who was] 40.”

Three witnesses said the RSF abducted at least five young men. Kaltuma Idris said the RSF abducted two of her sons, ages 15 and 22, and that she had not heard from them since. Ibrahim Bakit said he believed the RSF forcibly recruited his 18-year-old son and two neighbors of the same age, after unsuccessfully asking them to join the RSF in October 2023.

Many residents who managed to flee later returned to find their belongings had been looted. “[The RSF] looted a lot of things from there,” said Ibrahim Bakit. “They looted from the shops, took civilians’ property, took animals. They destroyed everything.”

On February 6, the SPLM-N briefly took control of Fayu from the RSF without fighting, but the RSF attacked again the next day, two residents said. They killed civilian men and women, raped and abducted women and girls, and looted and destroyed civilian property.

Sara said three local Arab gunmen she recognized entered her house and told her husband, 45, “You Nuba, we will pluck your eyes out!” The assailants then raped her niece, Sara said, and then asked her husband where the couple’s daughter was. When he said he did not know, the assailants shot and killed him.

Fatna Ibrahim gave the names of 12 people who were killed during the February 7 attack, including five civilians. She said she saw the body of her neighbor Mohammed, the owner of a hookah shop in his late 30s, who had been shot in the back. Uneyda Dhahab, who worked at a nongovernmental organization that focuses on nutrition, said she saw the RSF fighters shoot and kill two men trying to flee during the February attack, and that she later saw the bodies of two colleagues, a 50-year-old man and a 35-year-old man.

The RSF abducted at least four women and girls that day, residents said.

Human Rights Watch analyzed a satellite image from April 4, 2024 showing burned houses on the southern part of the town, the removal of the majority of the corrugated metal rooftops from houses and the market stalls, and debris around them.

By March, everything in Fayu had been destroyed, said Ibrahim Bakit who returned to the village. “It [was] like the bush.”