Sudanese militias unleash terror using British weapons

Sudanese refugees displaced by war (Photo: WikipediaCommons)

Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia has unleashed a level of terror on the city of El Fasher in Darfur that is hard to comprehend. The RSF is patrolling from door to door targeting people in a genocidal onslaught. Survivors have reported mass executions and torture.

Videos shared online by the RSF militant Abu Lulu show him slaughtering unarmed prisoners as they beg for mercy. Others evidence mass graves piled with bodies.

For those who follow events in Sudan, there has been a sense of grim inevitability about the fall of El Fasher. The RSF has besieged the city for 18 months preventing food or fuel getting in. By April this year, the RSF had already invaded the nearby Zam Zam camp, murdering hundreds of people.

The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have done little to protect the city. When the RSF attacks an area, the SAF militia withdraws its forces and leaves the civilians to their bloody fate.

The RSF and its leader Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo have their origins in the Janjaweed. It was notoriously used by the Sudanese state to unleash genocidal terror on Darfur in 2003 and later in South Kordofan.

The militia came to prominence again as the state moved to crush the revolution that overthrew the dictator Omar al-Bashir in early 2019. Hemedti played a central role in the Transitional Military Council that replaced al-Bashir. His forces continued to terrorise Darfur and to unleash counter-revolutionary violence in cities including the capital, Khartoum.

At this time, the RSF and the Sudanese state were working together. It was only in 2023 that the SAF led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF turned on each other and ignited a brutal civil war.

Sudanese activist Khalid Sidahmed told Socialist Worker that both sides in the war are counter-revolutionary militias. “The revolution is the primary target of both sides. They are both from the same regime”, he said.

As the SAF retook Khartoum, claiming victory over the RSF in March this year, the RSF forces retreated into their historic heartlands in the south, including in Darfur. They were able to continue to operate by exploiting the region’s wealth of resources, oil and especially gold.

Khalid said, “What the RSF did was expected. They struck a deal with the SAF and withdrew from the capital, Khartoum. It was not a military victory for the SAF. Instead, the SAF allowed them to return to the areas they came from and commit all these crimes and slaughter.”

The Sudanese state has essentially abandoned peripheral regions like Darfur, despite their supply of gold, in exchange for control of the cities. 

The RSF has forged links with regional powers including the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

British foreign secretary Yvette Cooper has condemned “atrocities, mass executions, starvation and the devastating use of rape as a weapon of war”. But equipment used by the RSF has included small-arms target systems and engines for armoured personnel carriers that are stamped with the words “made in Britain”.

There is credible evidence that British-made weapons have come into Sudan via the UAE, which has a longstanding trade and defence partnership with Britain.

Britain continued to grant export licences to British arms companies to send equipment to the UAE as late as September last year. This was after the start of the civil war and when there were already concerns that it was being diverted to Sudan.

The fall of El Fasher is a nightmare born in counter-revolution. The imperialist powers including Britain have let it happen.