Our Task Is Only Killing' - How Sudan's Brutal Militia Perpetrated a Massacre
Warning: This Story Includes Disturbing Details of Shootings.
Combatants chuckle as they move on the rear of a transport truck, hurrying past a series of nine dead bodies and moving facing the descending Sudanese sunset.
"Look at all this accomplishment. See this genocide," a fighter cheers.
The fighter beams as he turns the recording device on his person and his fellow militiamen, their RSF insignia visible: "They will all be killed in this manner."
The combatants are exulting in a atrocity that humanitarian officials fear killed more than 2,000 people in the Sudanese city of al-Fashir in recent weeks.
A City Isolated from the World
After maintaining the city under siege for nearly 24 months, from the summer the militia moved to strengthen its dominance and blockade the leftover residents.
Orbital photography demonstrate that forces commenced to erect a massive earth barrier - a built-up earthen wall - encircling the perimeter of the city, blocking entry points and preventing relief supplies.
During the encirclement escalated, multiple civilians were murdered in an paramilitary assault on a mosque on mid-September, while the United Nations said dozens further were killed in drone and cannon attacks on a displacement camp in October.
Graphic Footage Depicts Unarmed People Executed
In the early morning on late October the militia defeated the final army positions and seized the primary compound in the urban area, the headquarters of the Army Division, as the government forces pulled back.
Among the most disturbing footage to surface and examined showed the consequences of a massacre at a university building on the west of the city, where numerous dead bodies were observed strewn over the floor.
An older individual dressed in a white tunic remained alone amid the corpses. He looked to gaze as a combatant carrying with a rifle walked down the staircase facing the victim. lifting his firearm, the shooter released a single shot at the man, who collapsed to the ground motionless.
"Why is this person even breathing," a fighter exclaimed. "Kill this person."
Space-based imagery taken on 26 October appeared to verify that executions were also carried out on the roads of el-Fasher, as reported by a study published by the academic research center.
An observer who provided testimony stated he had seen "many of our relatives being massacred - these individuals were gathered in one place and each one killed."
Paramilitary Officers Seek to Carry Out Reputation Management
In the days that came after the massacre, paramilitary leader conceded that his fighters had carried out "atrocities" and said the incidents would be examined.
Included among apprehended was after a investigation detailing his executions. Deliberately orchestrated and modified recording published on the RSF's official Telegram account reveal him being escorted into a detention area at a prison on the outskirts of al-Fashir.
Meanwhile, the paramilitary force and associated digital accounts commenced trying to reframe the story.
Updates presenting its combatants providing supplies to inhabitants were shared by some users, while the militia's communications team published numerous videos purporting to display the humane treatment of government captives.
Regardless of the social media initiative being employed by the RSF, their actions in the city have sparked global anger.