>Sudan’s Darfur region was the scene of a genocide two decades ago. Exclusive videos shared with The Post show the inflamed bigotry behind a new wave of killings.
>Moments after the militiamen burst into the small adobe house in Sudan’s Kassab displacement camp, a woman inside began pleading for the lives of her sons. As she begged to trade her life for theirs, the paramilitary fighters clubbed her with a rifle butt, according to a passerby, who overheard the encounter and later talked with the family. Then the fighters led the five brothers away.
>Shortly afterward, a video showed, several men’s barefoot bodies were seen sprawled face-down in the dust, hands bound behind them, blood seeping across their clothes. Two witnesses identified the brothers’ bodies in the footage.
>
The immediate aftermath of the execution-style killings last year in Kassab, and others in neighboring Kutum town in Sudan’s western Darfur region, was captured in videos that have remained unpublished until now — rare visual evidence of the slaughter routinely occurring in Sudan as its armed forces battle a paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, in a conflict the United States estimates has cost about 150,000 lives.
>The killings of the young men who are seen in the videos were part of a massacre of at least 73 people, according to residents of Kutum and the U.N. refugee agency.
>The videos underscore the vitriol of Arab militiamen affiliated with the RSF toward their ethnic Black African victims and the toll of that bigotry, which victims say is fueling much of the violence committed by that group against civilians, especially in Darfur.
>In one of the videos, a gunman in a white turban gloats over the sprawled, bloodstained bodies of two unidentified men: “Take pictures! This is a victory for the Arabs! This is a victory for the Arabs!”
>In a third video, unseen fighters taunt another dying man, whose head lolls as crimson collects in a pool beneath him. (The video is too graphic to be included with this article.)
>About 70 percent of Sudanese identify as Arab, while the rest are primarily from Black African groups such as the Fur, Zaghawa and Nubians. The killings in Kassab and Kutum, which occurred in June 2023, foreshadowed other mass killings of mainly Black African civilians allegedly by the RSF in Darfurian cities such as Nyala and Geneina. The RSF has denied carrying out these atrocities, which have also been documented by Human Rights Watch.
>The videos from Kassab and Kutum were shared with The Washington Post as part of a joint investigation with Lighthouse Reports, Sky News and Le Monde and offer a rare glimpse at the horror unfolding in Sudan. Much of the killing has occurred out of the world’s sight. Few foreign journalists are allowed to travel to Sudan, and internet and phone connections are rare.
>While the military is also accused of committing abuses, including along ethnic lines, human rights groups say the RSF is responsible for the majority of the atrocities. Witness accounts and RSF propaganda videos revealed that senior RSF commanders were in the Kutum area during the killings.
>Ezzadin Elsafi, a senior RSF official, said the ethnic dimensions of the conflict have been blown out of proportion and that people in Kutum were now living together peacefully, overseen by an RSF commander belonging to the Fur tribe.
city-of-stars on
CMV: The Janjaweed RSF are the closest thing we have to modern-day Nazis. They stage false flag attacks as pretext for invading and slaughtering villages, they spread propaganda portraying African ethnic groups as slaves to their master Arab race, and they’re openly killing off as many Africans as they can to create *lebensraum*.
1TTTTTT1 on
Ethnic violence continues in Darfur unabated. This ethnic violence is silently endorsed by RSF leaders, and Darfur is currently on the brink of genocide.
The international community needs to take steps to prevent genocide and famine in Sudan. Safe avenues for refugees to flee need to be established, and humanitarian aid in Sudan increased.
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# Videos from Sudan’s killing fields reveal ethnic hatred behind massacres
>Sudan’s Darfur region was the scene of a genocide two decades ago. Exclusive videos shared with The Post show the inflamed bigotry behind a new wave of killings.
>Moments after the militiamen burst into the small adobe house in Sudan’s Kassab displacement camp, a woman inside began pleading for the lives of her sons. As she begged to trade her life for theirs, the paramilitary fighters clubbed her with a rifle butt, according to a passerby, who overheard the encounter and later talked with the family. Then the fighters led the five brothers away.
>Shortly afterward, a video showed, several men’s barefoot bodies were seen sprawled face-down in the dust, hands bound behind them, blood seeping across their clothes. Two witnesses identified the brothers’ bodies in the footage.
>
The immediate aftermath of the execution-style killings last year in Kassab, and others in neighboring Kutum town in Sudan’s western Darfur region, was captured in videos that have remained unpublished until now — rare visual evidence of the slaughter routinely occurring in Sudan as its armed forces battle a paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, in a conflict the United States estimates has cost about 150,000 lives.
>The killings of the young men who are seen in the videos were part of a massacre of at least 73 people, according to residents of Kutum and the U.N. refugee agency.
>The videos underscore the vitriol of Arab militiamen affiliated with the RSF toward their ethnic Black African victims and the toll of that bigotry, which victims say is fueling much of the violence committed by that group against civilians, especially in Darfur.
>In one of the videos, a gunman in a white turban gloats over the sprawled, bloodstained bodies of two unidentified men: “Take pictures! This is a victory for the Arabs! This is a victory for the Arabs!”
>In a third video, unseen fighters taunt another dying man, whose head lolls as crimson collects in a pool beneath him. (The video is too graphic to be included with this article.)
>About 70 percent of Sudanese identify as Arab, while the rest are primarily from Black African groups such as the Fur, Zaghawa and Nubians. The killings in Kassab and Kutum, which occurred in June 2023, foreshadowed other mass killings of mainly Black African civilians allegedly by the RSF in Darfurian cities such as Nyala and Geneina. The RSF has denied carrying out these atrocities, which have also been documented by Human Rights Watch.
>The videos from Kassab and Kutum were shared with The Washington Post as part of a joint investigation with Lighthouse Reports, Sky News and Le Monde and offer a rare glimpse at the horror unfolding in Sudan. Much of the killing has occurred out of the world’s sight. Few foreign journalists are allowed to travel to Sudan, and internet and phone connections are rare.
>While the military is also accused of committing abuses, including along ethnic lines, human rights groups say the RSF is responsible for the majority of the atrocities. Witness accounts and RSF propaganda videos revealed that senior RSF commanders were in the Kutum area during the killings.
>Ezzadin Elsafi, a senior RSF official, said the ethnic dimensions of the conflict have been blown out of proportion and that people in Kutum were now living together peacefully, overseen by an RSF commander belonging to the Fur tribe.
CMV: The Janjaweed RSF are the closest thing we have to modern-day Nazis. They stage false flag attacks as pretext for invading and slaughtering villages, they spread propaganda portraying African ethnic groups as slaves to their master Arab race, and they’re openly killing off as many Africans as they can to create *lebensraum*.
Ethnic violence continues in Darfur unabated. This ethnic violence is silently endorsed by RSF leaders, and Darfur is currently on the brink of genocide.
The international community needs to take steps to prevent genocide and famine in Sudan. Safe avenues for refugees to flee need to be established, and humanitarian aid in Sudan increased.