Sudan is the third largest country in Africa, with 50 million people. Half of its inhabited areas have been taken over a predatory, violent militia called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The RSF has killed at least 200,000 civilians who belong to minority ethnic groups after seizing the areas they live in. It is now holding thousands of people for ransom after seizing a key city in Sudan.
The Washington Post tells the story in the article, “In Sudan, thousands held hostage for ransom — and killed if they can’t pay.” “RSF fighters” have “rounded up civilians en masse…subjecting them to torture and extorting their families for cash.” They “have carried out mass kidnappings after overrunning the western city of El Fashir, holding thousands of civilians for ransoms and executing those who cannot pay — often in front of horrified family members.”
When the Sudanese army abandoned its final positions in late October and the city fell to the RSF, its fighters seized civilians en masse, including some women and children. Prisoners were subjected to torture and deprivation, survivors said, and then forced to call their families to beg for cash….
One medical worker, 37, stayed in the city throughout the siege…A younger brother tried to flee in August but was kidnapped and killed by the RSF, even after their impoverished family paid a ransom to his captors. When fighters overran the city, the medical worker fled with a group of about 100 people, but they were quickly captured. About 30 were executed on the spot….“I told them I was a doctor and that I help everyone, including RSF members,” he said….“They dropped us off in an abandoned house and ordered us to contact our families. They told me, ‘You must convince them to pay 50 million Sudanese pounds, or we will execute you immediately,’” he said. “I contacted my friends because I knew very well that my family didn’t have enough money.”
His friends negotiated the ransom down to 15 million Sudanese pounds — about $25,000… As he waited to learn his fate, the fighters brought in more young men…Their captors were told: “You must kill half of them to pressure the rest into paying.”
People who fled the city of El Fashir were often killed at roadblocks manned by the RSF. A minority were abducted rather than killed, and then held for ransom:
Each person was asked to identify their tribe, he said. “If someone said ‘Zaghawa’ or one of the African tribes, they were killed. If someone said they were a soldier, they were also killed,” he said…. He and 10 other captives were taken to a prison cell southwest of El Fashir. They were starved and sometimes forced to roll on thorny branches, he recalled. On the third day, he said, the RSF told them to call their families on a satellite internet connection and ask for 15 million Sudanese pounds.
Two of the prisoners asked for a reduction, saying their relatives couldn’t possibly raise that much. “They were killed immediately.”
The RSF ordered the rest to call their families. “While making the call, they held a rifle to your head. You would be beaten and humiliated until they responded.
Daqris prison, in the city of Nyala, is filled with thousands of captives taken from El Fashir…Detainees can only be released by the RSF officer who brought them, and only after a ransom has been paid by friends or family through a mobile money application.
About 60 detainees have been packed into every standard-size cell, the person said, with six people crammed into each solitary confinement room.
“Prisoners are subjected to torture and violence at the hands of guards. Many detainees have died.” Deaths from abuse and disease, including cholera, have been so frequent that a communal burial ground near the prison was soon full.
The RSF controls western Sudan (the Darfur region) and significant parts of other areas of Sudan, like the Kordofan region. Its enemy, Sudan’s military, controls the Nile Valley and most of eastern Sudan.
In January, the U.S. State Department formally declared that the Rapid Support Forces are committing genocide in Sudan. The RSF slaughtered 460 people in a maternity hospital after seizing the city of El Fashir, and killed tens of thousands of people in the city. So many civilians were slaughtered that pools of blood were visible from outer space. Earlier, the RSF militia deliberately shelled a hospital and maternity ward, killing many there. The RSF “fired a missile into a mosque during morning prayers,” reported the New York Times.
“The RSF and allied militias have systematically murdered men and boys — even infants — on an ethnic basis, and deliberately targeted women and girls from certain ethnic groups for rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence,” the U.S. State Department said. The RSF killed thousands of Masalit people and “looted and burned the palace of the sultan of the Masalit tribe.” “The Masalit are a local African tribe.” Moreover, the “RSF has targeted Masalit refugee camps, killed people attempting to escape to neighboring Chad, kidnapped and raped women and systematically killed influential figures in the community, such as tribal leaders.”
“Malnourished and dehydrated people are crawling through the desert on their elbows and knees in constant terror of being caught by fighters from Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF),” reported NBC.
