Our Task Involves Exclusively Executing' - The Way Sudan's Vicious Paramilitary Group Conducted a Mass Killing
Warning: This Story Includes Explicit Accounts of Executions.
Fighters laugh as they travel on the bed of a utility vehicle, racing alongside a row of nine corpses and heading facing the setting Sudan's sunset.
"See all this work. Observe this act of mass destruction," one cheers.
The fighter grins as he points the camera on his own face and his associate combatants, their paramilitary badges clearly shown: "They shall all be killed this way."
The combatants are rejoicing over a massacre that relief organizations fear resulted in the deaths of over two thousand individuals in the African city of the Darfur city last month.
A City Cut Off from the Outside
Having held the urban area under encirclement for almost two years, from August the paramilitary force advanced to consolidate its dominance and restrict the remaining civilian population.
Space-based imagery demonstrate that fighters began to erect a massive earth barrier - a built-up earthen wall - around the edges of al-Fashir, closing entry points and halting humanitarian assistance.
During the encirclement intensified, 78 individuals were slain in an paramilitary strike on a place of worship on September 19th, while the United Nations stated dozens more were killed in aerial and heavy weapon bombardments on a makeshift community in October.
Explicit Recording Depicts Defenseless Civilians Shot
By sunrise on 26 October the RSF overwhelmed the last government strongholds and took control of the central compound in the city, the headquarters of the Army Division, as the military retreated.
Perhaps the most graphic videos to surface and analysed depicted the aftermath of a atrocity at a university building on the western of the city, where scores dead bodies were visible strewn throughout the area.
A senior individual clad in a white tunic sat isolated amongst the bodies. The man rotated to glance as a combatant equipped with a rifle moved down the steps towards him. lifting his firearm, the shooter released a single bullet at the individual, who collapsed to the surface motionless.
"For what reason is this individual still living," another militiaman cried. "Kill this person."
Orbital photography recorded on October 26th indicated to verify that executions were additionally carried out on the roads of the city, according to a study published by the academic research center.
One observer who communicated reported he had seen "many of our family members being massacred - the victims were collected in a single location and everyone murdered."
Militia Officers Attempt to Implement Damage Control
Following the events that ensued from the massacre, RSF commander acknowledged that his fighters had committed "atrocities" and announced the incidents would be looked into.
Among those arrested was following a report detailing his murders. Meticulously choreographed and edited recording shared on the paramilitary's authorized social media account show him being escorted into a detention area at a prison on the outskirts of al-Fashir.
Simultaneously, the paramilitary force and connected digital profiles started trying to reframe the story.
Updates depicting its militiamen providing assistance to inhabitants were circulated by various users, while the force's public relations unit shared multiple clips purporting to show the proper handling of military captives.
Despite the online effort being used by the RSF, their activities in el-Fasher have generated global outrage.