Unruly RSF fighters sow chaos in Sudan's farming heartland

When fighters from Sudan's Rapid Support Forces began seizing vehicles from people in Sharafat Alhalaween village, local elders complained to commanders of the paramilitary group.

They assured the village during a March visit that the RSF would protect civilians, according to four residents. Soon afterwards, the RSF posted a video on social media - reviewed by Reuters - claiming to have dealt with unspecified "rogue actors" in the area.

But the next morning, the residents told Reuters, dozens of fighters stormed in on motorcycles and pickup trucks, firing guns in the air. The fighters, some in uniforms, went door to door grabbing money and valuables, prompting an exodus of thousands of people, they said.

The residents' accounts echo ones from across Sudan's central El Gezira state, a key farming region and strategic crossroads just south of the capital, Khartoum. Reuters interviewed 43 people from 20 communities - including residents, activists and RSF recruits - who described a spiral of looting, kidnapping and killing after the group seized most of the state in December.

The RSF has sought to convey in videos like the one posted in March that it is protecting civilians and providing food and services. But residents said the paramilitary group relies on a mix of irregular fighters, many motivated by bounty, and it often struggles to control them.

The Sudanese Armed Forces, which shared power with the RSF in a military-led government until fighting erupted between them in April 2023, has carried out airstrikes in El Gezira but has few ground forces there, according to residents and local activists. The military mobilised civilians to defend their communities, triggering deadly retribution, they said.

The violence has driven over 850,000 people from their homes, the United Nations says, disrupted farming critical to Sudan's food production and raised questions about the RSF's ability to enforce any truce after nearly 16 months of war.

"Some RSF officials admit that the group will face huge internal challenges should the war ever stop," said Alan Boswell of the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank. "It is bound together by conquest and the spoils of war."

Families displaced by RSF advances in Sudan's El Gezira and Sennar states shelter at the Omar ibn al-Khattab displacement site, Kassala state, Sudan, July 10, 2024. REUTERS/

The RSF denied targeting civilians or lacking command and control of its forces.

"The army, Islamist militias and criminals looted the state systematically in order to scapegoat our forces," it said in a statement to Reuters. "Our forces clashed with these rogue actors, and our commanders and soldiers died in that effort."

A military spokesman, Brigadier General Nabil Abdullah, dismissed the RSF's allegations as lies, saying the group and its mercenaries "committed every conceivable violation" against El Gezira's citizens.

Across Sudan, the RSF has repeatedly overwhelmed the military thanks in part to alliances forged with tribal militias and other armed groups. In July, it used El Gezira as a springboard to push into Sennar, White Nile and Gedaref states, triggering new waves of displacement and expanding the conflict through Sudan's agricultural heartland.

A fifth of the country's 50 million inhabitants have fled their homes, and around half are facing food insecurity, mainly in areas under RSF control, according to U.N. officials who describe the humanitarian crisis as the world's worst.

Families displaced by RSF advances in Sudan's El Gezira and Sennar states shelter at the Omar ibn al-Khattab displacement site, Kassala state, Sudan, July 10, 2024. REUTERS

International efforts to mediate between the sides have made little headway, though the United States is leading efforts to convene talks in Geneva.

The RSF says it is open to negotiating a ceasefire and humanitarian access. The military says it cannot negotiate until the RSF exits civilian areas and stops abuses.

EYEING LOOT

The RSF has roots in so-called Janjaweed militias, which helped the military crush a rebellion in Sudan's western Darfur region two decades ago, gaining recognition as a state-sanctioned security force in 2017.

It allied with the military to oust Islamist autocrat Omar al-Bashir in 2019, but the sides fell out over an internationally backed plan to move toward civilian rule.

When the power struggle turned violent, the RSF, led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, quickly took over greater Khartoum. The military, headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, responded with airstrikes and heavy artillery, to little effect.

The RSF then consolidated its grip across Darfur before surging into El Gezira, a refuge for half a million people displaced from Khartoum, and capturing the state capital, Wad Madani.

In Darfur, the RSF and allied militiamen engaged in ethnically targeted violence, but in El Gezira, residents said the fighters seemed convinced they were Bashir loyalists.

Some are seeking to settle grievances against a political elite that has long controlled Sudan from its centre - a problem for any future truce, said Suliman Baldo of the Sudan Transparency and Policy Tracker, a U.S.-based watchdog.

Families flee RSF advances in Sudan's El Gezira state, on Sennar Road in the city of al-Dinder, Sennar state, Sudan, June 12, 2024. REUTERS

Most are eyeing loot, he and residents said.

Three sources with direct knowledge of RSF recruitment said fighters are often drawn by the promise of a share of the spoils. The RSF denies this and says its fighters are paid monthly salaries.

The force includes units from rival tribes and militias, which sometimes clash among themselves, residents said.

Fighters based in Hasaheisa, the district that includes Sharafat Alhalaween, are under the command of Ahmed Adam Gouja, who was part of a militia active in Darfur before joining the RSF at the start of the war.

This area has seen some of the harshest attacks in El Gezira, especially after salaries dried up, residents and two local RSF recruits told Reuters.

"When you ask the soldiers about Hemedti, they say, 'He gave me this gun, but we don't trust him; we don't trust his soldiers; we only trust our brothers,'" said one young man reached by phone, who like many locals asked for anonymity for fear of retribution.

He described seeing fighters cock their weapons at superiors when ordered to shut down a satellite terminal they were using to sell internet access. Asked about the incident, the RSF said it did not control the terminal or prevent people from using it.

Families displaced by RSF advances in Sudan's El Gezira and Sennar states shelter at the Omar ibn al-Khattab displacement site, Kassala state, Sudan, July 10, 2024. REUTERS

Across the Nile River in East Gezira district, residents have been spared the worst of the violence as the RSF's top commander in the state, Abuagla Keikal, is from the area. He charges a protection tax, according to locals and activists who said fighters based in the district have clashed with Gouja's forces when they strayed over the river.

Reuters could not reach the two commanders, and the RSF did not answer questions about them.

FARMERS THREATENED

Civilians described fleeing from village to village on foot and in cars, boats, buses and donkey carts to escape RSF fighters.

First, they steal cars, gold and money, more than two dozen witnesses said, returning later for items such as clothes, electronics and food, which are sold in so-called "Dagalo markets" - a reference to Hemedti.

When they find nothing, they start kidnapping people for ransom, threatening to kill them if families don't pay, according to a group of activists, the Wad Madani Resistance Committee, who document RSF raids across the state.

A committee representative, who requested anonymity for safety, said hundreds of villages have been targeted and at least 800 people killed as of April, though a telecommunications blackout makes it impossible to confirm exact numbers.

The Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa, a rights group, has documented 75 cases of sexual assault by RSF fighters in the state, said its regional director, Hala al-Karib.

At least 17 people interviewed by Reuters said they had seen beatings, often with whips, and killings during the raids.

A mother of five who sought refuge in El Gezira after fleeing Khartoum said a nephew was killed in front of her.

"They said, 'Don't lift him, or we'll shoot you too.' We had to bury him where he was," said the woman, reached by phone in Port Sudan. She gave only one name, Hanan.

RSF fighters have cleaned out stocks of wheat, sorghum and other crops and blocked farmers from their fields, according to residents and agricultural officials.

"My fields are being eaten by cows because the farmers are scared to go out," said Mohamed Balla, a farming cooperative leader from Hasaheisa.

Diesel prices have soared; fertiliser and seeds are scarce, and tractors have been stolen.

A U.N.-backed food security monitoring network warned in June that parts of the state were at risk of famine.

The RSF did not answer questions about the disruptions to food production but has previously blamed a military blockade imposed on the state. The military did not comment on that.

Early in the war, the RSF set up an internal police force to tackle "negative phenomena," its term for abuses. This force has arrested more than 1,000 men in El Gezira, mostly locals, the RSF told Reuters in July.

Residents said the effect was limited. In several instances, RSF police clashed with fighters, but raids did not stop, they said.

Low on ground troops, the military has tried to encourage a so-called popular resistance. Burhan said in December that 40,000 men had joined the effort in El Gezira - many of them incensed by RSF attacks on women, according to the resistance committee.

"The RSF uses this as an excuse to attack," said the committee's representative, adding that few weapons and little training have been provided to civilian recruits.

One of the worst such incidents occurred in June, near the military's last base in El Gezira.

After men in Wad al-Noura village took up arms against the RSF, its fighters killed more than 100 people there, the committee said.

The RSF described the incident as a clash with army recruits and special forces. The military did not comment, though it pledged at the time to deliver a "harsh response".

"My husband was a teacher," a woman widowed in the incident told Reuters. "He didn't know anything about fighting, and we had nothing to fight for, no car or store. But as a man, he felt he had to fight."