Original Article By Anugrah Kumar
Evangelist Franklin Graham condemned the face of “radical Islam” in Sudan after receiving videos showing paramilitary fighters executing civilians following their capture of the city of el-Fasher. Graham said the footage, which includes people being shot in the head and “piles of bodies,” was too graphic to share publicly.
Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, seized el-Fasher on Monday, taking control of the last government-held city in Darfur after a months-long siege, The Associated Press reported. The RSF had already expelled Sudanese army troops from the region in recent weeks, marking a new stage in a war that has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced over 14 million.
On Wednesday, the Sudanese government reported that more than 2,000 civilians were killed since RSF entered the city.
“This is the face of radical Islam. We’ve been working in Sudan for over 30 years, and our hearts break for this country,” Graham, the president of Samaritan’s Purse and son of the late Rev. Billy Graham, wrote on Facebook, calling on people to pray for civilians being “murdered as you read this.”
Graham claimed RSF fighters were “just killing for the sake of killing,” calling the group’s actions evidence of radical Islam.
“A massacre is taking place in Sudan, and the world has pretty much ignored it,” he wrote.
Videos show RSF fighters carrying out executions in and around el-Fasher after taking the city from the Sudanese Armed Forces, according to the BBC, which said its reporters had verified the videos.
One clip, geolocated to a university building, showed an armed man in RSF attire shooting an unarmed man sitting among dozens of corpses. Another video showed a fighter known as Abu Lulu opening fire on nine unarmed captives with other RSF members cheering.
BBC Verify reported that several of the executions appeared to take place outside the city, in sandy rural areas with few landmarks, but at least one video was verified to be inside el-Fasher.
Satellite images reviewed by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab appeared to confirm the aftermath of mass killings, showing body-sized clusters in areas of the city not previously disturbed.
The United Nations coordinator for Sudan, Denise Brown, told the BBC she had received “credible reports of summary executions” of unarmed men in el-Fasher following the RSF’s entry.
Killings of unarmed civilians or surrendering combatants violate the Geneva Convention and are classified as war crimes.
The United Kingdom-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide is calling for “urgent international action” amid reports of civilian atrocities.
“The images and reporting emerging from El Fasher are horrific,” CSW’s Founder President Mervyn Thomas said in a statement. “Images of RSF fighters humiliating, torturing and killing civilians are just a snapshot of the devastating violence that civilians in El Fasher have been enduring for the past 18 months and are now being subjected to without any protection. We are also deeply disturbed by the number of RSF fighters who appear to be children recruited to perpetrate unimaginable violence. CSW calls on the international community to ensure the protection of Tawila, where many have fled, and to insist on unhindered humanitarian access to the region.”
The RSF, led by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, emerged from the Janjaweed militia that terrorized non-Arab populations in the Darfur genocide during the early 2000s.
The militia’s founder, Sudan’s former President Omar al-Bashir, was indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and genocide in 2009, the AP reported.
Dagalo, a native of Darfur from an Arab camel-trading family, expanded the RSF by incorporating Arab militias and financing the group through livestock and gold mining. His forces grew to an estimated 100,000 fighters and took part in conflicts in Yemen and Libya, often with backing from Gulf nations, including the United Arab Emirates.
The Sudanese army has filed a case at the International Court of Justice accusing the UAE of breaching the Genocide Convention by supporting the RSF. The UAE rejected the case as a “publicity stunt.” The army also accused Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar of aiding the RSF with weapons and troops.
Since the fall of al-Bashir in 2019, Dagalo has acted as a central power broker in Sudan, including playing a leading role in a military coup and the collapse of a transitional government.
The current war began in 2023 after the breakdown of a fragile alliance between Dagalo’s RSF and Sudanese army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan.
Both factions have replenished their ranks using foreign weapons and fighters. The RSF has launched drone strikes on army positions across Sudan using technology sourced from countries such as Turkey, China, Iran and Russia.
The RSF’s latest offensive into Darfur has stoked fears of Sudan’s disintegration. The group has declared its intention to form a parallel government in the areas under its control, including large parts of Darfur and Kordofan. The RSF had previously retreated from Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, but resumed attacks there earlier this year.
As of this week, the Sudanese army controls most of the country’s north and east, including Khartoum, while the RSF holds nearly all of Darfur and parts of Kordofan. The RSF’s predecessor, the Janjaweed, committed mass killings in the same region between 2003 and 2005, and many of those fighters are believed to have joined the current force, BBC reported.
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