Sudanese paramilitaries accused of displacing thousands in Al Jazirah state

January 7, 2025 (WAD MADANI) – Sudanese paramilitary forces have been accused of forcibly displacing residents from dozens of villages in Al Jazirah state, activists said on Tuesday, as the national army advances in a bid to recapture the region from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The Sudanese army is pushing forward from neighbouring Sennar state to reach the strategic town of Al Hajj Abdullah, south of Al Jazirah, currently under RSF control. The operation is part of a more extensive military campaign to retake Wad Madani, the state capital. Army forces have already secured several villages west of Al Hajj Abdullah.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the Al Jazirah Conference, a local activist group, said, “Over the past two days, the RSF militia has forcibly emptied more than 40 villages north of Al-Hajj Abdallah in southern Al Jazirah of their inhabitants.”

The statement alleged that this latest displacement campaign is part of a broader pattern of human rights abuses perpetrated by the RSF against civilians in the region. These abuses reportedly include extrajudicial killings, floggings, intentional starvation tactics through the disabling of water wells, and widespread looting of property, including household furniture. The RSF are also accused of burning boats used by civilians to cross the river.

Since October, the RSF has significantly escalated its campaigns against numerous outlying villages in Al Jazirah. These actions are widely seen as retaliation for the defection of a prominent RSF commander, Abu Agla Keikel, to the Sudanese army.

The Al Jazirah Conference estimates that recent RSF attacks in the eastern part of the state have displaced more than 400,000 people from approximately 500 villages, forcing them to flee to northern and eastern Sudan.