The Sudan Shield Forces, an armed group that fights alongside the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), deliberately focused civilians in an assault on January 10, 2025, worldwide watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) says in a statement right this moment. The assault on the village of Tayba in El Gezira state in central Sudan killed at the least 26 individuals, together with a baby, and injured extra. The group additionally systematically looted civilian property, together with meals provides, and set hearth to homes. These acts represent battle crimes and a few, such because the deliberate killings of civilians, might also represent potential crimes in opposition to humanity, HRW claims.
“Armed groups fighting alongside the Sudanese Armed Forces have carried out violent abuses against civilians in their latest offensive in Gezira state,” stated Jean-Baptiste Gallopin, senior disaster, battle and arms researcher at HRW. “The Sudanese authorities should urgently investigate all reported abuses and hold to account those responsible, including the commanders of the Sudan Shield Forces.”
Escalation
The January 10 assault was a part of a lethal surge in assaults by SAF-aligned teams and militias in opposition to communities in Gezira and different areas the military recaptured from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since January 2025. Armed attackers, together with the Sudan Shield Forces, the Islamist al-Baraa Ibn Malik battalion, and native militias, focused communities they apparently perceived to be supporters of the RSF, an autonomous navy pressure in battle with the SAF since April 2023. The SAF recaptured the capital of Gezira state, Wad Madani, on January 11.
HRW researchers interviewed eight survivors of the assault on Tayba who additionally witnessed key occasions surrounding that assault. Researchers additionally analysed satellite tv for pc imagery and pictures and movies shared by survivors that confirmed the our bodies of a few of those that had been killed, hearth injury attributable to the assailants, and graves of victims, and an inventory of 13 of these killed. A committee of Tayba residents established to depend the useless confirmed that 26 had been killed, HRW says.
Tayba, 30 kilometres east of Wad Madani within the Um al-Qura district, is dwelling to individuals primarily from the Tama, Bergo, and Mararit ethnic teams, initially from western Sudan. Such communities of farm staff from principally non-Arab ethnic teams in western and southern Sudan who settled within the space a long time in the past are generally known as “Kanabi.” Other Kanabi communities have come beneath assault in current weeks.
Attack
On the morning of January 10, dozens of Sudan Shield fighters, whom residents described as Arab, entered Tayba using Toyota Land Cruisers mounted with heavy machine weapons. Witnesses stated they shot indiscriminately at males and boys and set buildings on hearth. They attacked the village once more within the afternoon as residents had been burying the victims, going from home to deal with searching for males and boys, and once more killing, looting, and burning, witnesses stated.
A 60-year-old man stated gunmen sporting inexperienced camouflage and using in Toyota Land Cruisers attacked him at shut vary. “They said, ‘Stop!’ and then shot me near my kidney with a Kalashnikov [rifle],” he stated. A person who witnessed the scene stated he heard the assailants shout racial slurs reminiscent of “You slave!” as they had been capturing.
One girl stated that “They… came in the house where we were and asked where all our husbands were. And they started to threaten everyone, that they were going to harm us and our husbands. ‘Do you not know who Keikel’s troops are? Do you not know who we are?’” she recalled the boys saying, referring to Abu Aqla Keikel, the chief of the Sudan Shield Forces.
Keikel shaped the Sudan Shield Forces in 2022, recruiting primarily from Arab communities of Gezira state. The group fought on the aspect of the SAF from April 2023 to August 2023, however then defected to the RSF. In October 2024, Keikel and the Sudan Shield went again to preventing for the SAF. In response, the RSF carried out a wave of assaults in opposition to communities it presumed had been loyal to Keikel, committing atrocities together with widespread sexual violence in opposition to ladies and ladies. With Sudan’s navy recapturing Gezira and different areas of Sudan since January, civilians are bearing the brunt of retaliatory violence, this time by SAF-aligned forces who accuse them of collaborating with the RSF when it held the areas.
Witnesses stated the navy autos bore the phrases “Sudan Shield” and described an emblem in keeping with that of the Sudan Shield Forces. They described widespread looting of cash, meals, and livestock, together with 2,000 cattle. All witnesses stated the individuals within the village had no weapons and couldn’t and didn’t resist the January 10 assault.
A truck with Sudan Shield Forces members and branded with the Sudan Shield Forces emblem at an unknown location. Click to increase Image
A truck with Sudan Shield Forces members and branded with the Sudan Shield Forces emblem at an unknown location. Sudanshield0 Telegram channel on November 28, 2024.
‘Evidence of crimes’
Videos obtained and verified by HRW corroborate the assault on Tayba and include proof of crimes in different areas in Gezira state across the identical time. Video clips geolocated to Wad Madani that appeared on social media present SAF-aligned fighters finishing up torture and extrajudicial killings in opposition to unarmed individuals. Reports of killings of South Sudanese by SAF-aligned forces in Wad Madani sparked retaliatory violence in opposition to Sudanese civilians in South Sudan, which prompted a diplomatic disaster between Sudan and South Sudan.
Killing and maiming civilians, looting, and the deliberate focusing on and destruction of civilian property are battle crimes. Under the doctrine of command duty, navy commanders could also be accountable for battle crimes dedicated by subordinate members of the armed forces or different fighters topic to their management.
The SAF has condemned the abuses in japanese Gezira however described them as “individual transgressions” and stated it might maintain these accountable accountable. In the aftermath of the assault on Tayba, residents stated authorities investigators visited the location and interviewed key witnesses. Alongside this, witnesses stated that autos from the Joint Force of the Armed Movements, a SAF-aligned coalition of largely Darfuri armed teams, had been deployed to Tayba to guard the inhabitants. Yet, SAF generals together with General Yasir al-Atta, who sits on the ruling Sovereignty Council, have publicly appeared with Keikel since then and praised his contribution to the battle effort.
Call for investigation
The SAF ought to examine the assault on Tayba and different abuses carried out by affiliated armed teams and militias, publish the outcomes of its investigations, and take steps to carry all these accountable, together with commanders, to account, HRW stated. The SAF ought to droop Keikel and different key Sudan Shield commanders pending the end result of the investigation.
“There is clear evidence that SAF-aligned forces are responsible for gruesome killings and atrocities against civilians,” Gallopin stated. “International actors, including the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom, should actively support robust initiatives to protect civilians in Sudan and swiftly impose targeted sanctions on those responsible, including Abu Aqla Keikel,” HRW says.
The Sudan Shield Forces on January 14 denied accusations it had been concerned in abuses in opposition to Kanabi communities and expressed assist for SAF-led investigations.
The Sudan Sheild Forces and the SAF have been approached by Radio Dabanga for touch upon the HRW claims.
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