Rapid Support Forces Committing Ethnic Cleansing Campaign Near Kadugli
Since mid-May, over 4,000 Nuba families have been forcibly displaced from the immediate area surrounding Kadugli, the state capital of South Kordofan in Sudan. These displacements are the direct result of repeated and targeted attacks by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a violent regime paramilitary outfit that Sudan’s transitional government refuses to disarm and demobilize.
The vast majority of these displaced families have fled into liberated areas underneath the control of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N). The SPLM-N is an armed opposition movement that controls large swaths of the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan. The Sudanese military and their regime paramilitary allies have been waging a genocidal war against the Nuba people since 2011.
Background
In 2019, a peaceful revolution swept across Sudan and pushed the country into a period of transitional governance. While several regime officials are under arrest and new civilian leaders have made marginal reforms, top regime generals remain in positions of immense power. That includes the commander of the RSF Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, aka Hemeti.
The situation in the Nuba Mountains remains unchanged despite Sudan’s revolution. A ceasefire has been in place since 2016; however, regime forces routinely violate the agreement by targeting isolated Nuba communities near frontline areas. Such attacks are often spearheaded by RSF units.
It’s not uncommon for several dozen families to be displaced by regime forces every month in the Nuba Mountains. Seeing 4,000 Nuba families displaced in such a short time is an exponential escalation from the “normal” displacement numbers we have seen in the region over the last few years.
The Ethnic Cleansing of El Berdab
On May 12, violence broke out at a market in Kadugli and spread to other areas of the town. There were reportedly no security forces present when the conflict began. It appears that a dispute over the theft of livestock and the sale of a weapon escalated into inter-communal conflict. RSF fighters reportedly entered the fray and suffered casualties.
On May 13, government army soldiers attacked a group of RSF paramilitaries near Kadugli. The reason for the attack remains unknown. Violence between the Sudanese army, RSF, and another regime paramilitary called the Popular Defense Forces (PDF) has been on the rise in the Nuba Mountains region this year, as various regime security forces jockey for power.
Following the attack, RSF commander Hemeti ominously claimed:
“Since change occurred in the country, the RSF have been facing many challenges, treachery, and have been targeted more than once, by hidden hands. These hands not only work to destroy the RSF, but also intend to destroy Sudan. We will expose them in the near future.”
As is often the case when the RSF faces a military defeat, the paramilitary group immediately began an offensive not against the attackers, but unarmed civilians.
RSF paramilitaries used the inter-communal violence and Sudanese army attack as a pretext to invade the nearby town of El Berdab on the same day. Survivors have reported that when RSF soldiers invaded El Berdab on May 13, they asked residents what their ethnicity was. Those identified as ethnically Nuba were systematically tortured or killed and their houses pillaged and burned to the ground.
A SPLM-N-held valley in the southern Nuba Mountains during the rainy season.
While the Kadugli area is not far from the frontlines of the Nuba Mountains, it is under the complete control of the Sudanese army and RSF. This means that RSF paramilitaries knew they would not encounter armed SPLM-N resistance when they entered El Berdab. The only targets were Nuba civilians.
Hours later, more than 2,000 people had fled El Berdab as a direct result of this targeted attack. It is estimated that over 200 homes were systematically burned to the ground so that Nuba residents could not return.
Since this attack, RSF units have continued to target Nuba civilians in the Kadugli vicinity, which has accelerated forced displacement. Most recently, RSF paramilitaries killed a police officer and tortured and executed a small group of unarmed farmers.
Many of the 4,000 displaced families from these attacks have fled into the Buram and Heiban localities of the Nuba Mountains, where the SPLM-N has the ability to repulse RSF incursions. One of our local contacts has reported that there are new humanitarian needs caused by the sudden influx of such a large number of people, and some families are considering going south to Yida Refugee Camp.
It is unlikely that these families will be able to return to their land near Kadugli anytime soon, if ever.
There is a high probability that the number of forcibly displaced families from this latest RSF ethnic cleansing campaign will continue to increase in the coming weeks.
Children living in the Nuba Mountains and nearby Yida Refugee Camp have grown up under the threat of violence by the Rapid Support Forces and government aerial bombing. Many Nuba schools have been destroyed since 2011. If these children do not attain a quality education, the next generation of leaders seeking to end this crisis will be lost.
Operation Broken Silence sponsors 24 Nuba teachers at two schools in Yida Refugee Camp. We’re the only organization in the world supporting teachers here. You can help us continue doing that by signing up to give monthly.
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