[EXPLOSION] “The people are running away from the bombing. People are dying. We just send this to the nation to see what is happening in Nuba Mountains.” [GUNSHOTS] “Yeah.” Sudan is within the clasp of a brutal civil warfare. 11 million public were pushed from their properties, and tens of hundreds were killed. As a paramilitary workforce referred to as the Speedy Backup Forces — [CRIES] — battles the Sudanese Military for regulate of the rustic. The U.N. has accused all sides of abuses. However a six-month investigation by way of The Untouched York Instances presentations that the R.S.F. is committing systemic atrocities throughout Sudan, together with ethnic cleaning – ceaselessly below the attend to of its commanders. The unclear construction of the R.S.F. makes it brittle to spot the leaders accountable. However by way of inspecting dozens of slick propaganda movies, the place the commanders are offered as benevolent actors, we mapped out for the primary past a command construction of a minimum of 20 key figures and the areas they function in. R.S.F. warring parties below those commanders ceaselessly movie atrocities themselves, proof that can one past keep perpetrators to account. So The Instances teamed up with researchers at C.I.R.‘s Sudan Witness Project to collect these videos as the R.S.F. moved across Sudan. We analyzed fire signals and images collected by satellites, too. We interviewed an R.S.F. commander on the front line. And we spoke to witnesses to the war by partnering with Ayin Media, a network of reporters working anonymously in Sudan. Taken together, the evidence traces a playbook of terror being waged by the R.S.F. in multiple states. And locates Commanders like these — at or very near the sites of crimes. Sudan has been here before. Almost two decades ago, a notorious militia called the Janjaweed, meaning devils on horseback, carried out a genocide in Darfur. Over 300,000 people were estimated to have been killed. A former Janjaweed commander, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, or Hemeti, now leads the Rapid Support Forces, along with his brother Abdul Rahim as his deputy. And their fighters are using the tactics of Darfur from 20 years ago, in today’s civil warfare. We documented 3 huge patterns of abuse — executing unarmed captives, intentionally torching communities and without delay abusing civilians, together with with sexual violence. R.S.F. warring parties can also be known by way of their uniform. They put on luminous camouflage, ceaselessly with a Sudanese flag on one sleeve and a particular emblem at the alternative. They infrequently lease mercenaries and combat along loose-knit militias, who’re normally in ordinary garments. And lots of have scarves referred to as kadamols wrapped round their heads. We ceaselessly listen them significance the language of ethnic cleaning. Sudan’s military may be accused of warfare crimes, together with intentionally ravenous civilians, shelling hospitals and indiscriminate airstrikes. [WARPLANE FLYING] As many as 200 public had been reportedly killed in airstrikes previous this occasion in Darfur. However on this investigation — — we documented abuses by way of the R.S.F. on a wider scale — — that can quantity to crimes in opposition to humanity. Probably the most commanders we discovered on the web page of a number of atrocities is Hussein Barsham. He normally directs preventing within the Kordofan pocket, and that’s the place we discover him in October 2023, when the R.S.F. seized Baleela Airport and a big oil farmland close by. Barsham celebrates by way of the entrance of the terminal, however video filmed at the alternative aspect presentations what their victory seems like — [RAPID GUNFIRE] — warring parties executing a gaggle of captives. A blackmail — those movies are very impressive. So we’ve blurred some scenes. As the individual filming enters this parking accumulation, a gunman is firing right into a lump of our bodies at the floor. [GUNSHOTS] R.S.F. warring parties circle the sufferers and applaud the killing. Fourteen our bodies in overall. Lots of them are dressed in the dull fatigues standard of the Sudanese military, who had been protecting the airport. They’re now unarmed, and to kill them can be a warfare crime. Along with our research, a health care provider with experience in conflict-related accidents informed us there are indicators that that’s precisely what took place right here. The blood is pristine. A number of of the our bodies are twitching, indicating they had been not too long ago killed. The blood splatter suits the gunshot wounds, and one of the frame positions recommend they had been killed right here, no longer moved upcoming the combat. Barsham is close by, appearing off the jacket of a Sudanese soldier. A satellite tv for pc symbol taken on Oct. 30 presentations the execution web page, confirming the boys had been killed on that past. Barsham was once simply 100 yards away. He’s on the scene, commanding his forces across the past of the executions. Beneath the rules of warfare, he would possibly undergo duty if he ordered this crime or did not anything to prohibit it. 8 months after, we discovered Barsham with 3 extra R.S.F. commanders, Salih Al Futi, Al Taj Al Tijani and a farmland commander with the nom de guerre John Garang, when their warring parties performed every other execution. This past it was once in El Fula, the capital of West Kordofan. On June 20, we see a immense convoy of R.S.F. warring parties rolling into town. [CHEERING] They unfold out between streets of houses — — brag about males they’d killed — — and threaten others taken captive. Loads of Sudanese squaddies protecting El Fula had fled south previous that past, and the R.S.F. simply overruns town. [GUNSHOTS] Barsham is there between the two of them. Al Tijani, too, status along Barsham. And close by, warring parties swarm round Salih Al Futi as he walks. All over the assault, the R.S.F. rounds up 20 males and takes them simply outdoor town. An unidentified fighter says that he admires probably the most males as a military officer. A number of the males are dressed in army fatigues however none of them are armed. Nearest, simply as they did at Baleela Airport, the R.S.F. opened fireplace. [GUNSHOTS] The farmland commander, who is going by way of John Garang, is with them. Within the fray, they laud their senior commanders, Al Tijani and Al Futi. Al Tijani, Al Futi and Barsham don’t seem to be within the movies of those executions. However by way of inspecting pictures of them that past, we all know they had been lower than a mile away. And we all know they’re in El Fula round the similar past because the executions for the reason that shadows in each units of movies fit. Those commanders know each and every alternative. They’re time and again filmed in combination in West Kordofan. And within the 8 months between the executions at Baleela and El Fula, they seem to have executed not anything to forbid their warring parties’ conduct. Probably the most warfare’s maximum infamous episodes was once the execution of the after governor of West Darfur, Khamis Abakar. In June 2023, he was once captured by way of the R.S.F. hours upcoming he publicly criticized the gang. Video presentations him being compelled inside of a construction by way of a commander, Abdelrahman Joma Barakallah. This was once the endmost past he was once unhidden alive. Video filmed hours after confirmed his bloodied frame. Governor Abakar’s killing took place throughout a marketing campaign of ethnic violence concentrated on his tribe, the Masalit public in El Geneina, the similar workforce the Janjaweed terrorized a long time in the past. Mariam Mohammed Ismael is amongst part one million Sudanese who fled the violence to Chad. The R.S.F. laid misuse to El Geneina, burning i’m sick or destroying akin to 1 quarter of town’s 300,000 structures, simply because the Janjaweed did a long time in the past. They usually’ve old fireplace as a mode of warfare around the remains of Darfur and past for just about two years. In Kutum, in North Darfur, complete communities were destroyed since October. Satellite tv for pc pictures display refuse herbal fireplace trail between burned properties, and a couple of villages are one at a time burned. Those are telltale indicators of arson. Loads of miles away in Al Takmah, we catch R.S.F. warring parties within the work. They’re jubilant — — as properties and stores burn. They destroyed part town. At an army bottom the R.S.F. seized in Sidrah, a commander oversees the burning. A fighter walks into view, conserving a torch and burning i’m sick huts. The only he simply handed is now ablaze, and the gang gloats as they burn. A farmland commander named Al Gouja is close by — — bragging as much more huts journey up in flames. Al Gouja isn’t the one commander implicated in scorched earth techniques. We discovered 4 R.S.F. commanders directing assaults throughout a dreadful monthlong attack in North Darfur: Al Nour Al Guba and Geddo Hamdan Abu Shouk, each high-ranking commanders, and Ali Rizkallah and Zeer Salim, each lower-ranking farmland commanders. For weeks, they oversaw a brutal marketing campaign to seize the circumstance’s capital, El Fasher, from Sudan’s military and forces allied with them. The R.S.F. encircled town in April. Dozens of outlying villages had been torched in assaults concentrated on the Zaghawa ethnic workforce. The siege compelled a closely pregnant Ekhlas Adam Ali El Haj to escape her house village of Tawila. She reached the village similar Golo Dam. It’s right here, in Golo Dam, that we discover the primary of the North Darfur commanders, Ali Rizkallah, telling passersby to not release, that they’re defend. The reservoir in Golo Dam was once the primary H2O supply for the department, serving greater than 200,000 public. Rizkallah ordered it to be grew to become off. Ekhlas escaped once more, this past to a college in El Fasher. However the R.S.F. driven into town. That is the place we see every other 3 commanders at the entrance sequence — Zeer Salim, the lower-ranking commander, and Al Guba and Abu Shouk, the senior commanders. An R.S.F. farmland commander in El Fasher showed to us that the senior commanders are in rate. We’re getting to center of attention right here on 48 hours on June 1 and a couple of, after we see those commanders in combination as an entire community is torched. Zeer Salim is continuously filmed preventing at the streets along with his forces. On June 1, he seems in every other video, no longer preventing this past however giving the decision to worship inside of a mosque. We positioned the mosque to jap El Fasher. The later past, Zeer Salim is out on the street, simply two blocks from the mosque. [GUNSHOTS] That very same past, he’s along with his splendid officials, Al Guba and Abu Shouk, 1,000 ft from the mosque as they rally their troops. Throughout this department, clusters of structures had been burned i’m sick because the R.S.F. took regulate, and on June 1, much more structures had been torched. The R.S.F. commander denied duty and blamed the Sudanese Military bombing. There are some indicators of bombardment, however lots of the wreck that we analyzed is in keeping with the R.S.F. scorched-earth techniques. A mile clear of the mosque, an area the scale of 10 town blocks in Ny is ablaze that morning. A couple of fires seem to have been ignited round the similar past, the place participants of the Zaghawa ethnic workforce had been believed to be dwelling. That is proof of a centered ground-based assault, researchers from the Humanitarian Analysis Lab at Yale College say. Via August, greater than 20,000 buildings had been broken or destroyed, many by way of fireplace. The destruction is closely concentrated within the jap a part of town, the department of R.S.F. progress. Arafa Ali Yagoub was once dwelling on this department, and she or he recalled the R.S.F. terrorizing them ahead of they fled. Her husband was once kidnapped. Arafa was once displaced from her house by way of the Janjaweed when she was once a kid, and now by way of the R.S.F. The senior commanders at the floor in El Fasher, Al Guba and Abu Shouk, had been each within the Janjaweed and feature led R.S.F. forces in North Darfur for years. Abu Shouk is a relative of the R.S.F. chief Hemeti, and he has a historical past of ethnic violence with Zaghawa opponents, who his forces centered once more in El Fasher. The presence of those high-ranking commanders in El Fasher — — presentations the use of this marketing campaign to the R.S.F., and it unwittingly hyperlinks them to those atrocities. Ekhlas, Arafa and lots of hundreds extra had been compelled to escape, this past again to Ekhlas’s house in Tawila. When Ekhlas reached her house, even that have been looted. The fear that Ekhlas and Arafa persisted in El Fasher is being inflicted on familiar civilians all through Sudan. Numerous movies display the R.S.F. whipping public. Beating them, infrequently capturing them. [GUNSHOTS] And forcing them to put together animal noises. In October, the R.S.F. time and again attacked civilians in Gezira Shape, upcoming Abu Aqla Kaykal, an R.S.F. commander from that department — — defected to Sudan’s military. This caused a flow of retaliation by way of the R.S.F. Throughout Kaykal’s house circumstance. Villages in Gezira had been additionally attacked when Kaykal was once within the R.S.F. However this past, they in particular centered the tribe he was once from. Loads had been killed in an issue of weeks. Probably the most cities invaded by way of the R.S.F. is Al Seriha. An R.S.F. commander prominent that marketing campaign is Al Gouja, who we noticed when huts had been torched previous. Right here he’s, 300 yards from Al Seriha, capturing at it and directing R.S.F. warring parties round him. As soon as inside of, they spherical up males and keep them. We don’t see what occurs later. However the R.S.F. reportedly kills greater than 100 public right here. Coincident assaults had been taking place in villages proper around the jap Gezira pocket. In lots of parks, the R.S.F. spherical up the boys of the department or power them to at gunpoint. [GUN COCKS] Eyewitnesses we stated to had been terrified. They stole Ammar El Awad Alam’s herd of goats. The R.S.F. empty Al Seriha and lots of alternative villages. And the warring parties gloated about their ethnic cleaning. The assaults caused every other exodus. 150,000 public left in two weeks. They’re amongst over 8 million public now displaced in Sudan, and hundreds of thousands extra who’ve fled to neighboring international locations. Proof we gathered of the R.S.F. rampage in Gezira fit a couple of accounts of every other form of abuse — sexual violence. Survivors have given testimony to professionals we interviewed, together with Hala Al Karib, head of SIHA, a girls’s advocacy workforce. Her staff additionally gained testimonials of rape in different cities in Gezira, in particular across the department that Kaykal was once from. Tambul, Rufaa and Azraq are a number of the villages R.S.F. warring parties bragged that they’d destroyed. Mavens we stated to stated that setting apart males from their households, as we see in Gezira, is a key indicator of sexual violence. Eyewitnesses hardly ever talked without delay about sexual violence, however they feared for the girls and women of their communities. Hanan Abbakar Al Tahir recalled R.S.F. warring parties leering at her in her house in Gezira. In addition they killed a person for protecting girls. As Al-Nazeer fled his house, the R.S.F. beat him when he objected to ladies in his workforce being careworn. And after, he was once shot. Human Rights Supervise, the U.N. and alternative teams have documented sexual violence in a minimum of 5 states in Sudan for the reason that clash needy out. A long time on from the genocide in Darfur, only one particular person has been placed on trial on the World Legal Court docket. This past, there could also be a more potent probability for responsibility. The movies that warring parties understand as trophies in their exploits are looked by way of the prosecutor of the I.C.C. as one thing else — proof. “So we can piece together the different types of evidence sets that are available now, from phones, from video and audio recordings, that are also proving to be extremely critical to pierce the veil of impunity.” On this investigation, the pictures allowed us to seek out 10 commanders overseeing possible crimes and establish the disciplines of operation of many extra. Their chief, Basic Dagalo, or Hemeti, would possibly undergo utmost duty. Time and again, warring parties pay fealty to him. And the farmland commander we stated to stated that they remove orders from the govern. In virtually two years of warfare, Hemeti has did not forbid them from sporting out abuses. However there are sparkles of hope. The survivors we stated to recalled the benevolence of strangers, fellow voters who introduced meals, refuge or coverage as they fled. What they want now’s for the violence to finish.