'Our Mission Involves Only Killing' - How Sudan's Vicious Paramilitary Group Perpetrated a Massacre
Warning: This Report Includes Disturbing Details of Killings.
Combatants laugh as they travel on the bed of a pick-up truck, racing by a row of several dead bodies and heading facing the sinking Sudan's evening sky.
"See all this work. See this act of mass destruction," a combatant shouts.
The fighter beams as he turns the video equipment on his person and his fellow militiamen, their Rapid Support Forces identification on display: "They shall all be killed in this manner."
The combatants are celebrating a atrocity that aid workers believe killed over thousands of civilians in the Sudan's city of the Darfur city during October.
An Urban Center Isolated from the World
After maintaining the community under blockade for nearly two years, from August the militia moved to reinforce its control and blockade the leftover inhabitants.
Space-based imagery reveal that forces started to erect a enormous berm - a raised earthen wall - around the boundaries of al-Fashir, closing entry points and halting humanitarian assistance.
While the blockade intensified, seventy-eight individuals were killed in an RSF attack on a place of worship on mid-September, while the United Nations stated fifty-three additional were murdered in aerial and cannon strikes on a displacement camp in fall.
Explicit Video Depicts Unarmed People Shot
In the early morning on 26 October the RSF conquered the final military defenses and captured the main base in the community, the headquarters of the 6th Infantry Division, as the military withdrew.
One of the most horrific footage to surface and studied depicted the consequences of a massacre at a university building on the western side of the community, where scores dead bodies were observed strewn over the area.
An older man dressed in a traditional garment was seated by himself amongst the victims. He turned to look as a militiaman armed with a rifle moved along the steps in the direction of the victim. pointing his weapon, the shooter discharged a one shot at the victim, who fell to the surface motionless.
"For what reason is this one yet living," another militiaman exclaimed. "Kill this person."
Space-based imagery captured on late October seemed to confirm that killings were additionally conducted on the roads of the city, as reported by a analysis issued by the academic research center.
One eyewitness who spoke said the individual had seen "numerous of our kin getting executed - these individuals were collected in a single location and each one eliminated."
Militia Officers Attempt to Carry Out Damage Control
In the days that ensued from the massacre, paramilitary leader conceded that his fighters had carried out "violations" and announced the events would be examined.
Among those detained was following a report documenting his murders. Meticulously choreographed and modified footage published on the militia's formal social media platform reveal the individual being escorted into a detention area at a prison on the edges of al-Fashir.
Simultaneously, the RSF and connected digital accounts began trying to reshape the account.
Content depicting its combatants providing assistance to inhabitants were shared by some accounts, while the paramilitary's media office released multiple videos allegedly to demonstrate the compassionate handling of government prisoners of war.
Regardless of the online campaign being employed by the militia, their activities in el-Fasher have generated international condemnation.