“Slaves, get out,” the RSF soldiers shouted at the Masalit tribesmen

After the outbreak of war in April in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, an old conflict over land flared up in the western Darfur region between Sudanese of Arab and African descent. The target in the Ardamata residential area is the African people, the Masalit. According to testimonies, these inhabitants are mistreated, abused and humiliated, or rounded up and murdered. Some are set on fire. The Ardamata massacres by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which began at the beginning of this month, are taking place at a military base and in nearby residential areas on the outskirts of the city of El Geneina, where tens of thousands of displaced people live. This is a reconstruction based on seventy witnesses interviewed by the news agency Reutersanother twenty refugees through Human Rights Watch in neighboring Chad and four telephone interviews NRC. The death toll from this month’s massacre is estimated at between 1,300 and 2,000.

Wednesday November 1st

The RSF and their Arab allies surround the government base. There is a secondary boys’ school next to the base. “Three rockets hit the square next to the school where many people had gathered, and two hit the school itself,” according to eyewitness Farid. “One fell on a west side classroom, killing at least nine people, including two women. I got a shrapnel wound in my arm.”

Thursday November 2

When the army refuses to surrender, the RSF launches a major attack on the army camp the next day. The RSF hit a second school. “There were bodies everywhere. I counted fifty,” says one soldier. Two other soldiers see drones overhead, and one falls with a hissing sound on a house nearby in the camp, killing two women.

Friday November 3

In the morning, Hussein (18) and his twin brother Hassan are drinking tea in the residential area of ​​Ardamata when suddenly RSF soldiers and militia members on horseback or on motorcycles stop in front of their home. In front of his mother, they shoot his twin brother and plunder the house, taking money, phones and other belongings. Women present respond by immediately surrounding Hussein and dressing him in an abaya, a long robe for Muslim women. Outside, Hussein sees the bodies of young men, many his age, some with their hands tied behind their backs and gunshot wounds to the head. The pogrom against the Masalit – mainly young men – in Ardamata has begun. The attackers shout: “Kill the Masalit.” Surrounded by a close circle of women, Hussein manages to flee past several RSF checkpoints to the Adre in Chad.

Saturday November 4

At the government base, soldiers discover after dawn that they have been abandoned by their army commanders: the officers have quietly run away during the night. “They left the juniors behind without telling us anything,” according to government soldier Ibrahim, “suddenly the RSF was right in front of us.” Khamis, another soldier: “We had no idea of ​​the creeping retreat of the leadership. Then defeat quickly followed.”

Youssef is in a clinic on the base when the RSF storms it. “They shot the wounded, I managed to escape by crawling behind walls and through bushes.” As the attackers pour in, soldier Gamareldin Mohammed lies down on the ground, pulls the corpse of a comrade over him and plays dead. “I covered myself with the dead body and its blood.”

When Abdelrahim Hamdan Dagalo, brother of the RSF leader Hemedti, declares victory in front of the barracks, a group of two thousand soldiers and civilians have started a trek through the mountains. Many are ambushed by the RSF. “Everyone was running for their lives. If someone got hurt, you didn’t have time to help him up,” said one of the soldiers.

Tribal leaders in Ardamata have now started negotiations with the RSF and their Arab militias. All guns must be surrendered in exchange for the safety of the camp’s residents. But it is a deception: the ethnic cleansing by the RSF soldiers on the Masalit is actually intensifying. “They ordered all men to leave their homes and all women to stay indoors,” according to one official. “Slaves, get out,” they shouted.

Abdu Mohammed Ibrahim is at his house, which overlooks a large field, around noon. He sees RSF members and Arab militiamen leading hundreds of young men into the field. They divide them into groups and send them to different corners of the field, after which they open fire on them. “There were young people among them, only twelve years old. I know them by name.” A shopkeeper near the football field hears crowds of youths shouting, “Don’t burn us,” before gunshots ring out.

Alarmed by the gunfire, the young woman Samira and her family try to leave Ardamata: “We saw how two fighters on a motorcycle stopped a young woman and raped her in the street. We couldn’t help her, we had to move on.”

Sunday November 5

There are corpses everywhere in Ardamata. “At every step I saw bodies, some covered with blankets,” said resident Mustafa. The throats of two children appear to have been cut. Doctor Hayder (29) counts 95 bodies that day. “I found an 18-day-old baby in a house next to her mother and four other women. All wounds resulted from gunshots aimed at the chest or head.”

Monday November 6

At the bridge of Ardamata, a group of men and children sit, surrounded by RSF and other fighters. “Execute them all,” says one fighter, “let’s take revenge on them one by one,” shouts another.

Tuesday November 7

Arab militiamen invade the house of a 45-year-old farmer in Ardamata. They bring seven men to the front of the house. “The moment I came out, they shot at the seven men at close range. They were all lying there on the ground. One of the attackers said to me, “Do you see how many we killed?” They told me I had to leave town.” In the evening, Arabs in trucks and donkey carts bring looted goods to the police station – doors, window frames, even cars and rickshaws – where Arab women cheer them on.

Sunday November 26

Ardamata is deserted, with only a few inhabitants, and there are mass graves everywhere. “The dead bodies at the army base and in the neighborhoods on the other side of the bridge are all buried by the RSF,” says Dr Ahmed, “but there are still bodies in the northern part of Ardamata.” Countless Masalit remain in RSF detention centers. “There is no more fighting, but they still shoot young people. They continue to kill and plunder.”

Correction (November 30, 2023): In an earlier version, the names of the days did not correspond to the dates. That has been adjusted above.

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