Sudan's RSF Arrests Fighters Amid El Fasher Atrocity Allegations

Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have announced the arrest of several fighters in response to international condemnation over alleged atrocities committed in El Fasher. This move has been met with skepticism by human rights advocates and local residents, who view it as an attempt to deflect criticism without addressing the broader issues.

The focus of the outrage centers on a commander known as Abu Lulu, who appeared in videos depicting the execution of individuals in civilian clothing following the RSF's takeover of El Fasher. RSF media outlets have shown Abu Lulu under arrest and being led to a jail cell. However, Mohamed Suliman, a Sudanese researcher based in Boston, expressed doubts about the sincerity of this action, stating, "The detention of Abu Lulu appears to be a PR stunt to deflect global anger and shift attention away from the militia's responsibility for this massacre." He noted that many Sudanese have launched a hashtag, 'You are all Abu Lulu,' implying that the entire militia shares culpability.

In the wake of these events, images have circulated on social media depicting various RSF leaders, including the chief Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, with the name Abu Lulu inscribed beneath their faces. Hala al-Karib, a Sudanese activist focusing on violence against women, criticized the focus on a single individual, calling it a "painful joke" intended to divert attention from the scale of violence inflicted by RSF forces in El Fasher and other areas.

The RSF's origins trace back to the Janjaweed militias, which were implicated in massacres in Darfur during the 2000s. The current conflict between the RSF and the Sudanese army began in April 2023, following a power struggle between the two forces, and has since spread across the country.

The United Nations human rights office has reported that hundreds of civilians and unarmed fighters may have been killed while attempting to flee El Fasher. Seif Magango, a spokesperson for the UN human rights office, stated that witnesses confirmed RSF personnel selected women and girls and raped them at gunpoint, forcing the remaining displaced persons—around 100 families—to leave amid shooting and intimidation of older residents.

There is growing concern for the fate of tens of thousands of people after Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) raised alarms about only a few thousand arriving in the Tawila displacement camp west of El Fasher, a key destination for displaced individuals in the area. MSF reported that 75% of the 165 children under five it screened from El Fasher were acutely malnourished. Giulia Chiopris, an MSF pediatrician in Tawila, described the dire conditions, noting that children are victims of torture, gunshots on the road, and were forced in El Fasher to eat animal feed, leading to severe abdominal problems.

An activist who fled to Tawila after the RSF's attack on the Zamzam displacement camp in April recounted that those who arrived had to walk for at least two days. He reported that many men were killed, some women were tortured, and that everyone is ill or injured.