Witnesses say Sudan paramilitary abducted and enslaved children

The paramilitary forces in Sudan have abducted dozens of children during the capture of El-Fasher in October 2025, after killing the parents of these children in some instances, Reuters reported on January 30th.

While rights groups have previously reported on war crimes by both sides in Sudan, the abduction and enslavement of children by the paramilitary group RSF has not previously been reported. Children are seemingly most affected in conflicts, as Sudan’s military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been at war since April 2023.

The Reuters investigation gathered 26 witnesses who reported on 23 separate incidents of children being abducted in Sudan. About 56 children who have been abducted from residential areas ranged in age from two months to 17 years old.

Four accounts said that the RSF told the families of the abducted children that they would be used as slaves to herd animals, while six accounts described their own relatives being taken. 

An independent rights group called The Committee for Justice, based in Geneva, released a statement on February 2nd, holding the RSF “fully legally responsible for the safety and wellbeing of abducted children.” 

The group flagged the action of the RSF as a “breach of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which absolutely prohibits the recruitment, exploitation, or exposure of children to any form of violence, abuse, or enslavement,” adding that it was a violation of international humanitarian law.

International lawyer and former special adviser for slavery crimes at the International Criminal Court, Patricia Sellers, also said that these actions may constitute slave trading, which breaks international laws and treaties.

The witnesses recall that many abductions happened after parents were killed or held at gunpoint, with some of them being referred to with racial slurs by the arab-dominated RSF, derogatory terms that translate to “house slaves”.

38-year-old Madina Khamis said that she saw an RSF fighter named Abu Lulu shoot many captives while they were held in El-Fashir University, including a pregnant woman and 10 children. They then took three girls and two boys aged between two and five years whose mothers had been killed, along with a 2-month-old baby from another child’s arms, into a vehicle. 

Imam Ali, 26, was fleeing the captured city of El-fasher when the RSF fighters attacked them and shot two of his brothers and abducted the other two, aged 15 and 13, along with 60 sheep. He has not heard from them since.

The RSF was previously part of the Janjaweed militias that existed under the rule of former Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir, who was accused of committing genocide in Darfur in the early 2000s. The Janjaweed had kidnapped children, forcing them into work as herders or sex slaves, according to accounts by activists. The Sudanese military echoes these accounts, saying that the current actions of the paramilitary forces are “consistent with those of the Janjaweed militia during the previous regime.”

The RSF paramilitary continues to deflect responsibility for war crimes in Sudan. 

In November 2025, the UNHCR created an urgent mission to investigate and report on the violations of international law in El-Fasher in particular. The mission’s mandate has currently been extended till 2026, which has been welcomed by many rights groups that claim it is vital for documentation and accountability.

Reuters, CFJ, Maghrebi.org