Statement: CSOs Condemn the Escalating Violence in Sudan as the War reaches Wad Madani and Al Gezira State

(Arabic below)

December 23, 2023 

The undersigned civil society organisations (CSOs) vehemently condemns the recent expansion of the conflict in Sudan, marked by the devastating escalation in Madani, Gezira State. 

This latest development is a significant and alarming extension of the brutal war that has plagued the country since April 15. The conflict was initiated with clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who took over Greater Khartoum, most of the Darfur region, and now Wad Madani City 180 kilometres South of Khartoum and across Gezira State, causing unfathomable suffering. 

The RSF’s reign of terror in Darfur and Greater Khartoum, characterized by looting, sexual violence, killings, and forced disappearances, has now extended to Wad Madani. The SAF has exacerbated the violence, indiscriminately bombarding urban areas in Khartoum and South Darfur, contributing to the mounting civilian death toll. Further, the SAF has been involved in the ethnic profiling, execution, and detention of Sudanese citizens – women and men – claiming that these civilians are actually RSF collaborators based on their ethnic and tribal or political backgrounds. This approach is not new to the SAF; it was often used in the past and has largely contributed to the further disintegration of the country’s social fabric and accumulating grievances. 

The situation in Darfur and Khartoum has served as a grim precursor to the crisis in Wad Madani and Gezira State. On June 14, the RSF took over El Geneina City of West Darfur and killed the state governor Khamis Abakar. The battle in El Geneina left behind hundreds of civilians dead. The RSF and their allied Arab¹ militias have specifically targeted the Masalit tribe inhabitants of the region. The fighting has forced more than 670,000 people to flee their homes. Between end of April and June 14 the RSF and their allied Arab militias have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity against the civilians in and around the town, including mass killings, sexual violence against women and girls, and burning and looting of homes and IDP camps and villages.

 On December 18, the RSF entered Wad Mandani City, the hub of humanitarian aid to Sudan since the war started and the capital of Gezira State. According to UNOCHA, an estimated 5.9 million people live in Gezira State. This once-safe haven for over one million people, including more than 350,000 displaced persons from Khartoum, Kordofan, and Darfur, is now a battleground. Reports estimate that over 500,000 people have fled Al Gezira State and Wad Madani City since the RSF entered the state on December 18. People are seeking refuge from the relentless violence of the RSF.

The ongoing conflict in Sudan has significantly disrupted the nation’s infrastructure and basic services including education and health service. Over 6.5 million children in Sudan have been blocked from accessing education since the war started, bringing the total number of Sudanese school-age children who are out of school to 19 million. Rampant looting by the RSF has critically undermined the banking sector’s stability and the functionality of small-scale industries, factories, and local businesses. 

Central to the RSF’s strategy is the practice of Ghanima ( الْغَنيمَة), which means “spoils of war.” This practice, which involves seizing assets such as land, wealth, property, and even people, particularly women and girls, is a tactic employed by various militant groups to incentivize their forces. Ghanima is a strategy used by RSF that not only involves taking control of resources but often leads to their destruction, further exacerbating the war’s impact on the country’s economic and social fabric.

Since the RSF entered Gezira State, they resumed their looting activities and targeting of civilians and their livelihoods. Many accounts specifically spoke about the RSF targeting people of Darfuri origins in Gezira State, who historically have larger communities from Darfur residing in various Gezira villages. We have received reports from local residents that RSF soldiers are saying, ‘We are looking for Zurga² men.’

Patterns of sexual violence and enforced disappearances are escalating throughout the State, presenting grave human rights concerns. Although quantifying the full extent of these atrocities since December 18 remains challenging, to date, women’s rights organizations have documented seven cases of sexual violence in Gezira state between December 18 and December 21. This alarming figure over just four days likely represents only a fraction of the actual cases, as our previous experience in Khartoum, Darfur, and other regions suggests a much wider prevalence. 

Nahla Mohamed Osman, a young woman who was three months pregnant with her first child, was shot dead by the RSF while she was resisting rape inside her home in Madani Al Matar Neighbourhood. Tragically, many instances of sexual violence are often linked to the brutal executions of family members who attempt to protect their daughters, sisters, or wives. Based on our monitoring of the RSF’s violent behaviour, sexual violence during the initial stages of the invasion tends to occur within the survivors’ homes and often involves gang rape. 

Our analyses indicates that this pattern is a deliberate strategy to displace residents from their homes forcibly. The RSF did this in Khartoum at the beginning of the conflict in April 2023, and they have been doing this in rural Darfur for over 20 years. Alongside this, the frequency of enforced disappearances is rapidly increasing. Within just two days following the onset of attacks in Gezira state, ten people so far have gone missing, including children and elderly individuals. 

The crisis has also impacted medical professionals in the region; a university professor at Gezira University was shot dead inside his home by RSF soldiers on Friday. Two doctors and two female nurses were reportedly kidnapped from Gezira. Additionally, a doctor and nurse were tragically killed at Rufaa Hospital in Gezira state, further highlighting the severity of this perilous situation. 

Gezira state’s capital city, Wad Madani, is home to numerous vulnerable groups, including children undergoing cancer treatment, over 135 infants in an orphanage, at least 50 visually impaired individuals, an elderly home, and other facilities housing residents with disabilities. These groups are at severe risk as the RSF indiscriminately attacks and loots essential facilities. Consequently, people fleeing on foot from Gezira state seek safer paths away from RSF checkpoints and main roads to avoid further violence. This mass exodus includes the residents of Sennar and Sinja in Northern Blue Nile state, who also fear the RSF invasion of their towns and villages. Amidst this turmoil, there may be over one million Sudanese people currently displaced, moving aimlessly in search of safety. 

In light of these developments, the undersigned civil society organisations urgently call upon the UN and international Actors friends of Sudan and Sudan neighbours within the region and the  IGAD member states to: 

1. Immediately implement a civilian protection framework which is gender-responsive and ensures unhindered access to community-led humanitarian aid for the people in Sudan who have been impacted by this mass campaign of atrocities and violence. This framework should have actionable consequences if violated.  
2. Immediately establish a cessation of hostility, which is monitored closely and overseen by ground forces and the establishment of civilian safe zones. This should be done while facilitating a broad-based and inclusive civilian-led conflict transformation process in which women play a leading role.  
3. Establish an international criminal tribunal (similar to the tribunal established to address the crimes of genocide in Rwanda) to address the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Sudan conflict. This tribunal is critical for building accountability mechanisms for future political processes and avoiding recycling violence. 
4. Exert pressure on the RSF and their allies to stop the killing and the destruction of Sudan’s infrastructure. The SAF must be pressured to come to the table with a viable and serious political process that will enable civilians’ and women’s participation and guarantee that both RSF and SAF are not part of any ruling structures in Sudan. 
5. Enhance support for adequate humanitarian aid for the civilians affected by the conflict by providing resources and programs to support communities of IDPs’ livelihoods and social well-being, along with mental health and psychosocial support services. 
6. Implement the fact-finding mission by the UN Human Rights Council. This mission must be consolidated and supported by the formation of a Sudan fact-finding mission by the Security Council to examine the breaches and violations of the Security Council resolutions in Darfur and Sudan. Specifically to investigate the massive sexual violence crimes committed across the country. 
7. Stop illicit financial streams and political economies that enrich critical perpetrators of violence. 

SIHA Network stands in solidarity with the people of Sudan, particularly those in Wad Madani and across Gezira State, who are enduring the horrors of this expanded conflict. We implore the international community to take swift and decisive action to bring an end to this escalating humanitarian crisis.

You can append your signature by clicking the link here or the button at the end of the statement below or by scanning the QR code.  

Signatories:

1. Adeela for Culture and Art
2. All Women Together Network
3. Bahariat  Women’s Association  -South Darfur  
4. Beja Voice Feminist Organization
5. Darfur Activists Platform
6. Darfur Bar Association
7. Development Hub – Kampala
8. Dr. Asma-Bthaina Ahmed Elnaiem
9. Fikra for Studies and Development
10. Gender Equality Network Initiative – Kassala
11. Justice First Group 
12. Kassala Feminist Platform
13. Khalid Omer Karoum – Sudan Veterinary Society abroad 
14. Marginalized Rights Defenders Alliance 
15. Mothers of Sudan 
16. National Society for Peace and Development 
17. No to Women Oppression Initiative
18. Noon Studies and Research and Documentation Center 
19. Peace Collectives – Kassala 
20. Rural Extension Education and Development Organization 
21. Sas Legal Center for Training 
22. Self Help Association 
23. Sennar Women Leaders’ Society
24. Sudan Institute for Democracy 
25. Sudanese women build sustainable peace – Kassala 
26. Sudanese Women for Peace – Kassala 
27. Sudanese Women Union
28. Taadod Women’s Cooperative Society 
29. The Strategic Initiative for women in the Horn of Africa -SIHA 
30. Women Against War 
31. Women Lawyers without Borders 
32. Zahrat Almustgbal Association
33. تجمع أساتذة الجامعات السودانية 

1 It is crucial to understand that ‘Arab’ and ‘African’ identities are fluid and constantly being reconstructed and shifted over the incredibly long history of the area that is today recognized as Sudan. These identities are influenced by much more than ethnicity, as tribal affiliation, political history, colourism, and power struggles have played a large role in shaping these identities over time. At present, the ‘Arab’ identity is privileged identity in relation to the ‘African’ identity. However, the fluidity of these identities means that people find themselves in different places on the spectrum of privilege and oppression in different contexts and at different moments in history. Despite the history of Darfur as an ancient Islamic Kingdom, the Fur people, as well as the Masalit, and other groups found in the Darfur region, are classified as ‘African’ by the empowered majority (which includes the RSF) – who identify themselves as part of the ‘Arabized’ identity.

2 Zurga is a term that has been used predominantly by the RSF in Darfur to refer to Darfuri people who are ‘othered’ from the ‘Arab’ identity described above. The term ‘Zurga’ is thus used to described a group that is marginalized based on this understanding of their identity as ‘black’ and ‘African’ which are cast to be distinct from ‘Arab.’