A grim new chapter has unfolded in Sudan’s unrelenting civil war, as disturbing reports emerge of summary executions carried out by Islamist paramilitary fighters against young men in the battle-scarred capital region. According to eyewitness accounts from anguished relatives and urgent dispatches from human rights monitors on the ground, dozens of civilian males in Khartoum North stand accused of collaborating with rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and have paid the ultimate price – gunned down in cold blood or dragged away to uncertain fates.
The alleged perpetrators are said to be members of the shadowy Al-Bara’ ibn Malik brigade, a militia outfit aligned with the Sudanese army that has been embroiled in the bloody struggle for control of greater Khartoum since hostilities erupted between the army and RSF over a year ago. Local sources paint a chilling picture of the brigade’s fighters marching into the Halfaya neighborhood on the heels of a hard-fought advance from nearby Omdurman, accompanied by hardline Islamic jurists issuing on-the-spot fatwas to execute any male residents suspected of aiding the enemy purely on the basis of flimsy denunciations.
Caught in the Crossfire
For the victims’ grief-stricken families, the agony is compounded by the gnawing uncertainty and social stigma now attached to their loved ones’ deaths. One bereaved cousin, Asmaa Mubarak, relates how her 18-year-old cousin, apprehensive of looters, ventured back to the embattled zone to guard his family’s house after they had fled to a safer city – only to be callously cut down as an alleged RSF collaborator. His father now cannot even retrieve the body for a proper burial, for fear of meeting the same fate at the hands of the Al-Bara’ ibn Malik fighters.
“His father asked him to remain with them, but he insisted on going back, telling them all his peers were guarding their houses.”
– Asmaa Mubarak, cousin of executed youth
In another wrenching case, a South Sudanese refugee who grew up in Halfaya was reportedly branded a “slave” and killed for purportedly cooperating with the RSF, though his family lacked the means to flee abroad when the war erupted on their doorstep. Still more civilians are feared to be in the crosshairs as the army sets its sights on Khartoum North’s Shambat neighborhood, currently under RSF control.
Demanding Accountability
The Sudan Democratic Lawyers Front, a civil rights watchdog, is pulling no punches in denouncing the extrajudicial killings as unambiguous war crimes and demanding a full investigation to bring the culprits to book. United Nations human rights officials have also sounded the alarm, revealing ongoing probes into reports of dozens of civilian deaths across greater Khartoum and repeatedly impressing on all parties to the conflict their binding obligation to safeguard innocents.
“We think this is a clear war crime and we demand that a comprehensive investigation is opened to find out who the perpetrators are, and to trail those who have committed it.”
– Sudan Democratic Lawyers Front
For its part, the Sudanese army flatly denies any involvement by its regular troops in extralegal killings, even as it lobs counter-accusations of a smear campaign orchestrated by the civilian opposition. But the Al-Bara’ ibn Malik brigade itself, an Islamist formation tracing its roots to the now-toppled dictatorship of Omar al-Bashir, has yet to answer for its alleged crimes.
A Nation on the Brink
The horrific reports of atrocities against young men amid Khartoum’s urban combat serve as a blood-curdling reminder of the depths of tragedy in Sudan’s ceaseless civil strife, which has already claimed tens of thousands of lives, uprooted millions from their homes, and left the nation teetering on the precipice of all-out famine since fighting broke out between the army and RSF in April 2023. And as the international community grapples with the sheer enormity of the humanitarian catastrophe, the suffering only promises to deepen for the forsaken people of Sudan.
“I don’t think the world realizes the gravity of the Sudanese crisis, nor its impact,” warned a visibly exasperated Mamadou Dian Balde, head coordinator of the UN refugee agency’s on-the-ground response. The global diplomatic efforts “are not commensurate with the needs” to stanch the bleeding, he lamented; from the corridors of power to the charred streets of Khartoum, Sudan’s tragedy remains an orphan.
