Observation: Witnesses claim that a Sudanese force is detaining Darfur siege survivors for ransom

Witnesses, relief workers, and scholars claim that the Sudanese paramilitary force that besieged and overran a city in Darfur in late October is routinely keeping trapped inhabitants for ransom and beating or killing those whose families are unable to pay.

The precise number of those imprisoned in and around al-Fashir, the capital of North Darfur, by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and affiliated militias was unknown to Reuters. However, the sources indicate that although some groups have been brought back into the city while the RSF seeks thousands of dollars in payments from their relatives, others are being kept in a group of towns within 80 kilometers (50 miles) of al-Fashir.

Their incarceration highlights the dangers faced by individuals who were unable to flee al-Fashir, which served as the last major resistance to the RSF in the western Darfur region before to its collapse. Since the RSF took over, witnesses have reported widespread retaliation, including sexual assault and summary executions.

As humanitarian organizations strive to enter famine-stricken al-Fashir and its surroundings, which became a focal point in the 2 1/2-year-old conflict between the RSF and Sudan’s army, it also spotlights the predicament of some of the tens of thousands of people who remain unaccounted for.

Thirty-three ex-detainees and ten relief workers and researchers were questioned by Reuters, who offered hitherto undisclosed information about the extent of the detentions, the locations where they were held, and the cruelty the captives endured.

In a region that is extremely poor, survivors reported paying ransoms ranging from 5 million ($1,400) to 60 million ($17,000) Sudanese pounds.

According to 11 survivors, those inmates who were unable to pay were shot at close range or mowed down in groups, while other prisoners suffered severe beatings. Survivors who had crossed the border into Chad were seen by a Reuters reporter with injuries that seemed to be from gunshot wounds and beatings. Reuters was unable to fully confirm their accounts.

“They give you three or four days, and if you don’t transfer the money, they kill you,” Mohamed Ismail told Reuters over the phone from Tawila, a town managed by neutral troops close to al-Fashir.

Ismail stated that he had left al-Fashir when the RSF seized control of the city on October 26. However, he was one of 24 men who were taken prisoner by the RSF in the village of Um Jalbakh.

Before being released, he and his nephew were each required to collect 10 million Sudanese pounds from family members. In front of them, he claimed, nine more men were slain.

Violence that is ethnically charged

When asked for reaction, Mohamed Mukhtar, the legal counsel for the RSF, stated that a rival group whose members pose as RSF members has been responsible for the majority of the arrest and extortion of al-Fashir residents.

Ahmed al-Nour al-Hala, the head of the RSF committee, told Reuters that the bureau is looking into over 100 cases of alleged abuse in al-Fashir every day. Nine people have been found guilty and many suspects have been arrested.

Al-Fashir’s capture following an 18-month siege marked a watershed in a conflict that began as a power struggle between the army and the RSF and has resulted in what the UN has called the worst humanitarian crisis in history. Allegations of war crimes have been made against both sides.

The RSF tightened its hold on a region where the Arab-dominated force and its allies were accused of mass killings against ethnic non-Arabs earlier in the war, an echo of the genocide in Darfur 20 years prior. When the RSF took control of al-Fashir, it was estimated that up to a quarter of a million people lived there.

Reuters spoke to survivors of RSF imprisonment in and around al-Fashir, who said they were regularly asked what tribe they were from and subjected to racial epithets.

Since the RSF took control of al-Fashir, an estimated 100,000 people have left, according to the International Organization for Migration. Most of them are still in RSF-controlled villages around al-Fashir, such as Garney, Korma, Um Jalbakh, Shagra, Hilat Alsheikh, Jebel Wana, and Tora, however aid organizations report that over 15,000 of them have reached Tawila and roughly 9,500 have crossed into Chad.

How many are still in al-Fashir itself is unknown to researchers. According to relief organizations, some residents were unable to leave the city because they were too ill or injured to travel, or they could not afford to pay for transportation.

BLACKOUT OF COMMUNICATIONS

One former prisoner who managed to reach Chad, 36-year-old Yassir Hamad Ali, claimed that he and 16 other men were taken prisoner by RSF militants on October 29 after escaping al-Fashir. He claimed that after brutally beating him, the RSF demanded 150 million Sudanese pounds in exchange for his freedom.

He told Reuters at a hospital in Tine, close to Chad’s border with Sudan, that the fighters used a Starlink satellite internet terminal mounted on a Toyota Land Cruiser to communicate with his family via Facebook Messenger.

Since the beginning of the conflict, large areas of RSF-controlled territory have been without telecommunication, which has resulted in an increase in the number of Starlink terminals. A request for comment was not answered by Starlink.

According to receipts provided to Reuters, Ali claimed that his family eventually reduced the amount to 5 million pounds, which they deposited via Bankak, a virtual wallet used in Sudan.

Ibrahim Kitr, 30, another man in Tine, claimed that his family borrowed money from their Atbara City house to cover his ransom of 35 million pounds. “I don’t think they will be able to pay it back,” he replied.

Alhaj Altijany Kitr, 31, his brother, claimed that while on a videochat with the family, fighters put a gun to his head and severely beat him. This is a tactic that is similar to what gangs on neighboring Libyan migrant smuggling routes do, where their members call the relatives of detained migrants while abusing them in an attempt to demand higher ransoms.

Areas under RSF control have seen extensive looting, and the RSF has regularly recruited members or militias on the lure of pillage rather than a steady income.

However, relief workers claim that ransom-seeking on the scale observed in the al-Fashir area is a more recent phenomena.

On November 28, satellite images of the town of Garney reveal hundreds of additional makeshift shelters that have been built in the past month. This implied that people might be held there for an extended period of time, according to two humanitarian workers.

DETENTIONS IN THE FASHIR

Men and women were separated when they arrived in Garney, according to earlier reports from Reuters. However, women have also been detained there. Another woman claimed to have seen such rapes, and another claimed to have been blindfolded and raped there for several days.

The second woman, who was crying over the phone from Tawila, claimed that when she attempted to interfere, RSF soldiers threatened to kill her.

After being taken back to al-Fashir, eight former prisoners reported that they were held hostage in a variety of structures, including university residence halls and military installations.

One man, a 62-year-old teacher who requested to remain anonymous, reported that he and hundreds of other men ended up in the children’s hospital in al-Fashir.

They drew water from the hospital’s stagnant pool while crammed into rows and without anything to drink. According to the instructor, over 300 men perished when they later found out it was sewage water. Reuters received comparable estimates from two human rights researchers who interviewed witnesses.

Mujahid Eltahir, a 35-year-old man who had been abducted in al-Fashir, claimed that after being abused and receiving a 30 million pound ransom, he was freed. However, he was then imprisoned once more in the town of Zalingei, where his kidnappers demanded an additional six million pounds from his family.

He claimed to have witnessed the remains of seven individuals he had escaped with on the road, each with gunshot wounds to the chest or head. In N’Djamena, Chad, he spoke to Reuters and displayed a photo of his blistered barefoot feet after RSF troops stole his shoes.

The RSF has broadcast footage and live streams of individuals receiving food and medical care in the city after taking over al-Fashir.

According to a nurse who informed Reuters that the RSF had captured her being detained there, its soldiers had recorded her eating and claiming she was getting good treatment.

“They produced a film that demonstrated how well they treated us. They abuse you one minute and then put you on live the next,” she claimed.