Crimes Committed by Both Sides of the Civil War

Civil war broke out in Sudan on April 15, 2023 after the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces in the country started fighting each other over power in the African nation. “The power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted into a large-scale conflict in April 2023 and has been driving humanitarian needs in the country ever since,” according to the International Rescue Committee. It comes to light that both sides have committed gruesome crimes. There have been rape, massive displacement, attacks on civilians, kidnapping people, and forcing them to work, along with many other atrocities committed by the SAF and the paramilitary RSF.

Reuters reported that “Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have both raped and attacked civilians, used torture and made arbitrary arrests, according to the report that said it was based on 182 interviews with survivors, relatives and witnesses.” The United Nations has made “harrowing” discoveries that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity connected to both sides of this civil war, according to the BBC. Both the SAF and RSF have launched indiscriminate airstrikes along with shelling of schools, hospitals, communications networks, and water and electricity supplies, according to Middle East Eye, a U.K.-based news site that reports on the Middle East and North Africa.

Forced recruitment of children into the RSF has also occurred, along with girls who have been abducted and used for sexual exploitation, according to the United Nations. Perpetrators have filmed four execution cases, three are from the RSF and one from the SAF, according to AllAfrica. There have been 37 men who were executed in El Fula, and Belila Airport, in West and North Kordofan from October 2023 to June 2024. The SAF executed three detainees, conceivably children, northwest of Khartoum. Other countries are continuing this civil war. Egypt is supporting the SAF while the United Arab Emirates continues to send weapons to the RSF, according to PBS NewsHour. 

The Effects of the Civil War

The effects of this civil war have caused the displacement of a multifold of people and taken significant amounts of human lives. According to Global Conflict Tracker, “Since the conflict began on April 15, 2023, almost 15,000 people have been killed, and more than 8.2 million have been displaced, giving rise to the worst displacement crisis in the world.” According to the UK Parliament, “Much of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, now reportedly ‘lies in rubble’ and other cities have been besieged or destroyed.” 

In the International Humanitarian Conference for Sudan held in Paris, it was assured that necessities needed to be pre-positioned. “Basic necessities must be pre-positioned before the start of the rainy season in June, farmers must be supplied with seeds before the planting season, also in June, and displaced people must be given money before they face starvation,” according to Institut de Relations Internationales et Stratégiques, a French public interest association created in 1991. The Rapid Support Forces have ransacked the National Museum of Sudan. “Sudanese Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters have reportedly looted the National Museum of Sudan in Khartoum and smuggled some of its artifacts across the country’s southern border,” according to Middle East Eye.

Internationally, neighboring countries, like Egypt, are affected because the flow through the Nile in Sudanese waters has been interrupted, which is a direct threat to the economy and security in Egypt, according to the United States Institute Of Peace. 

Background of Sudan Civil War

The RSF mostly consists of militants from an Arab Sudanese group called Janjaweed, which operates in the Sahel region of Sudan, while the SAF is the military belonging to the Republic of Sudan. There is a dispute on who attacked first from both sides of the conflict. According to Al Jazeera, “The army, led by Sudan’s de facto ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Burhan’s deputy-turned-rival Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as ‘Hemedti’, each accuses the other of attacking first.” Sudan needs humanitarian aid due to long-term instability. The need for humanitarian aid had risen from 15.8 million people to 25 million people according to the International Rescue Committee. 

A Call to Action

More nations need to put more pressure on Sudan to stop this war. Nations need to build refugee camps for displaced Sudanese escaping the conflict. There also needs to be humanitarian aid to help Sudanese civilians.