Sudan paramilitary chief and fighters hit with criminal charges
The leader of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), alongside over 200 of his fighters, have been charged with several crimes by Sudan’s Public Prosecutor, according to Middle East Monitor on November 7th.
The charges against RSF chief Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (aka Hemedti) and fighters under his authority include undermining the constitutional order, waging war against the state, and participation in and complicity with such crimes.
Since the RSF captured the long-suffering city of El-Fasher from the Sudanese military on October 26th, international outrage against the paramilitary group erupted in response to mass atrocities inflicted on the city’s residents.
A series of brutal massacres, including the summary execution of 460 hospital patients at once, has forced at least 36,000 residents to flee El-Fasher since its fall, according to The Guardian on November 3rd.
In total, well over 600,000 people, half of whom are children, have been displaced from the city since the start of Sudan’s civil war, which erupted in April 2023 after a power struggle between the military and the RSF turned bloody.
El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, was placed under an RSF-imposed siege in May 2024 as part of a wider and now successful campaign to flush out the last remaining military stronghold in the vast western region of Darfur.
On October 30th, Hemedti sought to ease the global outcry against his fighters by publishing a video to his official telegram channel where he “apologises to the people of El-Fasher for the catastrophe that befell them.”
However, his language was noticeably evasive, and Hemedti refrained from explicitly taking responsibility for the atrocities, claiming that “we were forced into this war; it was imposed upon us. But the liberation of El-Fasher is in favour of Sudan’s unity – peacefully or through war.”
In the very same statement, he declared the establishment of accountability committees to monitor and investigate abuses against El-Fasher residents. Following this announcement, the RSF revealed that it had arrested several of its own fighters, including Abu Lulu, who has been dubbed the “Butcher of El-Fasher.”
Abu Lulu gained widespread notoriety for reportedly live-streaming himself killing unarmed civilians and bragging about his crimes. The RSF published a video of fighters placing him in handcuffs and transporting him to a local prison where he was subsequently placed in a cell.
However, Sudanese observers and human rights campaigners alike have met the supposed arrests with scepticism, claiming they were staged as a publicity stunt to curtail criticism against the RSF and scrub up its image, according to The Guardian on October 31st.
“The detention of Abu Lulu appears to be a PR stunt to deflect global anger and shift attention away from the militia’s responsibility”, stated Mohamed Suliman, who is a Sudanese researcher and writer based in Boston.
He continued in saying that “many Sudanese did not buy into this and launched a hashtag: ‘You are all Abu Lulu’ – meaning the entire militia acts like him.”
Middle East Monitor, United Nations, Anadolu Agency, Maghrebi.org, The Guardian, The Independent
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