Sudan Conflict: RSF Emulating Israel's Alleged Genocide Strategy in Sudan
In the heart of Sudan, on April 11, the RSF, a powerful paramilitary group, viciously stormed the Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur. The menacing forces torched homes and businesses, mercilessly executed medics, and indiscriminately fired upon fleeing civilians.
The death toll is estimated to be over 500 individuals, primarily men, women, children, and the elderly. On top of these gruesome losses, hundreds of thousands were forced to abandon their homes and livelihoods.
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This horrific attack provoked an uproar around the world, prompting the RSF to dig in their heels and amplify propaganda they'd been peddling for months about Zamzam - that it was, in fact, a military barracks.
"Zamzam was a military zone," claimed RSF adviser Ali Musabel in an interview with Al Jazeera, with no evidence to back up his claim. "We had to evacuate civilians. We didn't want them to get caught in the crossfire."
Opinions vary on the RSF's motive. Rifaat Makawi, a Sudanese human rights lawyer, asserts that the RSF is intentionally stripping civilians of their legal protection by branding them as combatants or instruments of war.
"This is not a coincidence. It's a deliberate practice aimed at justifying their atrocities," Makawi told Al Jazeera.
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The Blueprint of Genocide
Throughout Sudan's civil war, the RSF has employed clever rhetoric and jargon from international humanitarian law (IHL) to perpetrate vile atrocities. For years, Israel has used a similar method to deflect criticism for brutally oppressing Palestinians. Since launching its deadly war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, Israel has been relentless in its pursuit of these tactics.
Israel now claims that hospitals in Gaza are nothing more than Hamas "command centers," trying to justify attacks on these protected facilities. They also accuse Hamas of hiding among civilians as a tactic to use them as "human shields," justifying over-the-top retaliations.
In addition, Israel has labeled mass expulsions of civilians as "humanitarian evacuations," giving them only hours to pack their entire lives and escape from Israeli bombings, if they even can.
Israel is under fire for its war that has claimed over 52,567 Palestinian lives.
Concerningly, the RSF appears to be embracing Israel's war tactics, according to local monitors and legal experts.
"The fact that the RSF's justifications for their actions in Sudan mirror those used by Israel in Gaza reveals the emergence of a template for committing mass extermination, even genocide," said Luigi Daniele, a senior lecturer in IHL at Nottingham Law School.
The UN accuses both sides in Sudan's war of committing grave crimes, such as killing and torturing prisoners of war, since the power struggle between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) erupted into an all-out civil war in April 2024.
Human rights groups accuse the RSF of committing additional atrocities, including what may be a genocide against non-Arab communities in Darfur.
From Janjaweed to Platitudes
The RSF can be traced back to the nomadic "Arab" militias of Darfur, known as the Janjaweed, who became infamous for countless atrocities. The army used the Janjaweed to crush rebellions by sedentary farming communities that started in 2003. These farmers were protesting against their political and economic marginalization in Sudan.
SAF and RSF were closely aligned until at least 2021, when they united to oust the civilian administration with which they had been sharing power after a popular uprising toppled dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019.
Following the coup, the RSF signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) to receive human rights training. Now, the RSF and its allies are employing human rights language to conceal their atrocities.
On March 8, an RSF-backed political alliance, Tasis, took to Twitter, "Standing in solidarity with Sudanese women amid their recent ordeal that led to tragic conditions and egregious violations due to the unjust war." Tasis made no mention of allegations published by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International that accuse the RSF of widespread sexual violence and rape throughout the war.
During the raid on Zamzam, the RSF reportedly abducted 25 women and girls and raped others, according to the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa.
"What I see in Darfur, specifically in Zamzam, is not merely a violation of IHL but evidence of its distortion and transformation into a cover for the worst crimes," Sudanese human rights lawyer Makawi told Al Jazeera.
Finishing the Genocide?
The Zamzam camp was established in 2003, 15km from North Darfur's capital, el-Fasher, as a refuge for persecuted Zaghawa and Fur communities forced from their land by the state-backed Janjaweed. The camp eventually swelled to over half a million people.
In April 2024, the RSF besieged el-Fasher and nearby towns after the Joint Forces - a coalition of armed groups formed to fight the government - switched sides, aligning with the army. The RSF blocked aid to anyone not working for them, resulting in famine in Zamzam.
As civilians withered away from starvation, the RSF began claiming that Zamzam was a "military base." This was a clear sign of their intention to attack.
"This claim that there was a military base in Zamzam was never correct. We had some people who acted as a police force, but there were no military leaders in the camp," said Mosab, a survivor of the massacre in Zamzam.
Mosab, along with hundreds of thousand others, was forcibly displaced, now languishing in the nearby town of Tawila.
The events at Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur serve as a stark reminder of the ongoing human rights abuses and violence in the region. The RSF's attack has resulted in the death of over 500 civilians, including women, children, and the elderly, and forced hundreds of thousands to abandon their homes and livelihoods.
This massacre, along with the RSF's use of manipulative language to justify their actions, raises serious questions about their motives. Some experts believe that the RSF is intentionally stripping civilians of legal protection, a tactic that mirrors Israel's approach in its war against Gaza.
Recent evidence suggests that the RSF may be embracing Israel's war tactics, using similar rhetoric and jargon to deflect criticism and perpetrate further atrocities. This development is concerning, particularly in light of the RSF's alleged role in a potential genocide against non-Arab communities in Darfur.
The international community must urgently address these reports of war crimes and potential genocide, holding those responsible accountable and working towards lasting peace and justice in Sudan. The ongoing conflict in Sudan is a stark reminder that the fight for human rights and the protection of civilians is far from over.
