The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) armed group has killed, injured, and unlawfully detained scores of civilians and raped women and girls during attacks across Sudan’s Al Gezira state, Human Rights Watch said today. Given the scale and severity of the threat to civilians, it is critical for the United Kingdom to use its November United Nations Security Council presidency to push for UN action to deploy a mission to protect civilians in Sudan.

Since the October 20, 2024 defection of a leading RSF ally in eastern Al Gezira, the RSF has attacked at least 30 villages and towns, certainly an underestimate, including Rufaa, Tamboul, Al-Sireha, and Azrag. The UN has said that over 130,000 people have fled the attacks to other parts of Sudan.

“This recent massive uptick in the Rapid Support Forces’ heinous attacks against civilians should end any lingering hopes that these crimes will stop without a strong global response,” said Mohamed Osman, Sudan researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The UN Security Council’s minimal action is clearly failing to protect civilians. It urgently needs to authorize the deployment of a civilian protection mission.”

The RSF, in an ongoing conflict with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), took control of Wad Madani, Al Gezira’s state capital, in December 2023 and has committed serious abuses, including sexual violence and killings, in the state since. On October 20, Abu Agla Keikel, the commander of an RSF ally force in the state, defected to the SAF, triggering this surge in retaliatory attacks on civilians, including those from Keikel’s tribe.

While communications and access limitations are hampering real-time reporting, Human Rights Watch interviewed six people, including witnesses and local rights monitors, offering an initial insight into events. Human Rights Watch also verified two videos showing the RSF detaining men in Al-Sihera village and reviewed satellite imagery of possible new grave sites in the village.

A 55-year-old woman from Tamboul said the RSF fighters shot at houses as they entered the town on October 22. The forces rounded up men and boys near her house. “I saw an RSF soldier shoot a man in the chest,” she said. “They kept shouting at us to leave the town. They said whoever stays here will not be considered a civilian.”

Another resident said the fighters came to his house that same day: “The RSF soldiers were furious … they kept asking me if I am related to Keikel or if I know where his family is. They threatened to kill anyone related to him.” According to the Sudan Protection Cluster, the RSF clashed with the SAF in Tamboul on October 23. The cluster reported that the attacks and fighting left about 300 civilians dead.

On October 25 and 26, the RSF attacked Al-Sireha village, clashing with some armed residents, reportedly leaving 124 civilians dead and over 200 injured. A resident saw RSF vehicles shooting mounted guns and firing rocket-propelled grenades as they entered the village on the morning of October 25. He fled later that day. “We saw piles of bodies, including two children, near one of the irrigation canals,” he said.

According to local monitors, the RSF detained over 150 people in Al-Sireha. Two videos posted on Facebook on October 26 and verified by Human Rights Watch show RSF fighters detaining about 100 men in Al-Sireha village.

The first video shows at least 68 detained men at the northwestern intersection of the village. About 20 of them are sitting on the ground, some with bloodstained clothing. The RSF soldier filming them, speaking Arabic, says: “Keikel … look these are your people,” and forces the detainees to mimic animal sounds.

A second video filmed by the same soldier shows six RSF soldiers and 26 unarmed, detained men, including several older men, in a field on the western side of the village. Many of the detainees appear to have their hands tied behind their back, and two detained men have bloodstained clothing. Human Rights Watch was unable to determine what happened to the detainees.

RSF fighters are also reported to have subjected women and girls to sexual violence during these attacks. As of November 4, the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa, a regional women’s rights group, had documented 25 cases of rape and gang rape by the RSF, including 10 girls among the victims. The rights group also documented at least six cases in which survivors of acts of sexual violence subsequently died by suicide. On October 30, the UN, citing local health officials, said that “more than 27 women and girls aged between 6 and 60 years old” had been “subjected to rape and sexual assault.”

Hassan, 51, whose full name is not being used for his protection, fled Al-Sireha on October 22 with his wife and three daughters. The RSF stopped them at a checkpoint: “One of the RSF soldiers looked at my youngest daughter, who is 15, and said: ‘Leave her so we can enjoy her, and you can leave.’ They started to make sexual comments about my daughter.” Hassan and his family managed to escape.

Rights groups and the media said that they received reports of widespread looting in eastern Al Gezira. These attacks are worsening an already dire humanitarian situation, which has been exacerbated by ongoing restrictions imposed by the SAF on access to RSF-controlled areas and looting by the RSF.

The United Kingdom is the penholder on Sudan at the UN Security Council and holds the presidency for November, during which the council will be discussing how to better protect civilians in Sudan following an October report by the UN secretary-general. Given the massive uptick in brutal attacks on civilians, it is urgent for the United Kingdom, in cooperation with African Union member states, to press the Security Council to authorize a civilian protection mission for Sudan. UN member states should also bolster support for the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan, as the secretary-general recommended.

“The United Kingdom, as penholder on Sudan, needs to step up at this moment of crisis and ensure that the calls of those desperately in need of protection in Sudan are not ignored,” Osman said. “Global and regional leaders cannot afford to be missing in action given the alarming trends.”