Sudanese Attorney General: 200,000 mercenaries fighting alongside Rapid Support Forces

The Sudanese Attorney General accused the Rapid Support Forces of "committing crimes of assault and murder against civilians, as well as crimes of sexual violence represented by sexual slavery, rape, and forced pregnancy with the intent of causing demographic change."

He added: "It has committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and terrorist crimes by attacking civilian airports, destroying navigation equipment and putting them out of service."

Tayfour added that the Rapid Support Forces "occupied 540,000 civilian properties, 80 percent of which were citizens' homes, and put 250 hospitals out of service, including 14 hospitals that were used as military barracks."

He continued: "In general, the militia (Rapid Support) committed violations that fall under Article 18 of the Sudanese Criminal Code, which includes articles related to war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and genocide."

She also "committed crimes related to violating the Sudanese Anti-Terrorism Law in addition to Articles 50 to 78 of the Sudanese Penal Code," he said.

Tayfour stated that "the militia (Rapid Support) also committed serious crimes against children, as it recruited 10,500 children."

The Sudanese Attorney General also accused the Rapid Support Forces of "looting the World Food Programme's warehouses in Khartoum, the cities of Nyala, Geneina and Zalingei (west), the regional warehouse in Al-Jazeera State, and the main warehouses of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in the capital, Khartoum."

International organizations, including Human Rights Watch, accuse the Rapid Support Forces of “committing looting, sieges of villages, and systematic sexual violence.”

In January 2024, a report by a panel of experts tasked by the UN Security Council with monitoring the implementation of sanctions imposed on Sudan estimated that “the Rapid Support Forces, supported by Arab militias (which it did not name), killed between 10,000 and 15,000 people in the town of Al-Geneina in South Darfur State, western Sudan.”

The European Union, the United States and Britain imposed sanctions on a number of Rapid Support Forces leaders for their role in the war in Sudan, including the brothers of Rapid Support Forces leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, Hemedti Abdel Rahim and Al-Qoni.

The Rapid Support Forces deny committing any violations and insist that they are seeking to achieve peace.

Criminal reports

The Sudanese Attorney General stated that the Public Prosecution and the National Committee for Investigating Rapid Support Forces Crimes conducted very extensive investigations.

He said: "The number of reports of Rapid Support Forces crimes reached more than 31,000, and rulings were issued in 391 of them and 705 were referred to court."

Tayfour pointed out that "the procedures are going very well, and there are defendants who have been declared fugitives, and defendants have been requested through Interpol and others will be requested."

On August 3, 2023, the Chairman of the Sovereignty Council, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, issued a decision to form a committee to record “war crimes, violations and practices of the Rapid Support Forces,” which included the Attorney General, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and representatives from the Ministry of Justice, the Armed Forces, the Police, the General Intelligence Service, and the National Commission for Human Rights.

Regarding the Fact-Finding Committee of the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Sudanese Attorney General considered that the committee "did not deal with these violations in the professional manner required regarding investigating the cases."

He added: "The International Committee went to talk about political issues outside its jurisdiction, such as demanding that the authority of the International Criminal Court be extended to all Sudanese territory, bringing in protection forces for civilians, and banning weapons on all Sudanese territory."

He continued, saying: "This is completely outside its jurisdiction... That is why the judicial apparatus in Sudan and the Sudanese state rejected the committee's report before the Human Rights Council and submitted comments on it and demanded the termination of its mandate."

He added, "Unfortunately, this term has been renewed, and so far we have not seen any legal work that would reassure the Sudanese citizen about the work of this committee. This committee has agendas that are not related to the law at all."

Khartoum rejected the decision of the United Nations Human Rights Council to extend the mandate of the "Fact-Finding Mission in Sudan" until October 2025.

Khartoum announced from the beginning its rejection of the decision to establish the mission, which was adopted by the Human Rights Council in October 2023, with the aim of documenting human rights violations committed in the country since the outbreak of the war on April 15, 2023.

Anatolia