On June 14, a Masalit activist for displaced persons said he saw Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Commander Abdul Rahman Juma dressed in military uniform and carrying an assault rifle. The military man was giving orders to a large contingent of RSF fighters to target the Al Madaris area with mortars and RPGs, the activist said.

Mortars rained down on people sheltering in the area that day, according to multiple survivors who were there. On the same day, West Darfur Governor Khamis Abbakar, himself a Masalit, publicly condemned the actions of the RSF in the city, accusing the paramilitary of genocide.

Abbakar was killed by RSF forces that same day, Reuters reported at the time. Footage posted on social media showed Abbakar being led into Juma’s office at RSF headquarters in the city. Later, pictures of his body being mutilated also appeared on social media.

In September, the US State Department said the men who killed the governor were led by Juma and announced sanctions against him. In an audio message posted on an RSF social media page, Juma said the governor was killed by an angry mob while trying to escape to Chad. He had tried to help the governor by arranging transport for him to Chad, Juma said.

Juma did not respond to questions for this report sent to him via the RSF. He has denied that the paramilitary was involved in the bloodshed in El Geneina.

Violence flared anew in early November. Hundreds of Masalit men were rounded up by Arab forces, according to dozens of survivors. Some of these captives were executed in the outlying Ardamata district of El Geneina, according to at least 30 witnesses.

After the RSF overran the Sudanese army base in El Geneina in early November, Juma can be seen in a video posted on an RSF social media channel addressing his troops outside the base and hailing RSF leader Hemedti. At the time, dozens of witnesses told Reuters, a killing campaign by RSF forces and Arab militias was underway in Ardamata, the district where the army base is located. Masalit men in particular were targeted. The European Union said more than 1,000 Masalit were killed in the rampage.

Idriss Hassan, RSF Brigadier General

Witnesses said they saw RSF Brig-Gen Idriss Hassan, seen in a photo posted on the paramilitary’s account on X, directing forces that attacked civilian areas in El Geneina.

Also spotted in the attacks was Idriss Hassan, an RSF brigadier general and member of the Rizeigat tribe. Hassan was part of the Arab forces used by former dictator Bashir to crush the rebellion by the non-Arab tribes in the early 2000s. Bashir faces genocide charges by the ICC over his role in the violence.

Three witnesses said they saw Hassan in May directing RSF forces who were attacking civilian areas, largely populated by the Masalit.

El-Tayab, a 34-year-old Masalit who took up arms when hostilities began, said he saw Hassan in the city’s Al Jabal district in mid-May. Hassan arrived in a mud-covered white land cruiser mounted with an anti-aircraft gun. “He was supervising the forces” that shelled the district, El-Tayab said.

Multiple witnesses told Reuters that the RSF and its allied Arab militias shelled civilian areas in El Geneina for weeks and then ambushed and killed people fleeing for Chad. Entire areas of the city, mainly Masalit districts, were razed to the ground.

Sources: Open Street Map; Shuttle Radar Topography Mission; Reuters reporting and analysis of satellite imagery from Copernicus, Planet Labs PBC, Maxar Technologies and Airbus

Mohammed, a construction worker, said he performed work at Hassan’s house a few years ago. Mohammed said he was in the city’s Abu Zor displaced-persons camp in late May when he recognized Hassan leading a large force that stormed the camp. Hassan, dressed in RSF uniform and wearing a traditional Arab turban, arrived in a convoy of mud-covered land cruisers. Mohammed said he was hit in the arm by shrapnel during the attack and later fled to Chad.

A 39-year-old Masalit doctor told Reuters he saw Hassan in late May leading a convoy of some 30 pickup trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns, heading to the Masalit district of Al Thawra in southern El Geneina.

Hassan did not respond to questions sent to him via the RSF.

Al Tijani Karshoum, Deputy governor of West Darfur

Witnesses said they saw West Darfur’s deputy governor, Al Tijani Karshoum, directing artillery fire at the governor’s office and other targets in El Geneina during the assault on the city. Karshoum is seen here in a photo posted on the RSF’s account on X.

Karshoum became deputy governor of West Darfur in 2022. Four people said they saw Karshoum – a well-known figure locally – with militiamen as Arab forces moved through the city during the attacks.

Younis, a 43-year-old Masalit resident, said he encountered Karshoum on May 6. Karshoum was riding in the front of a pickup truck, carrying about a dozen Arab militiamen, that pulled up outside Younis’ house in the western Al Jamarek district near RSF headquarters. Younis said four of the militiamen stormed into his home, grilling him at gunpoint about his tribal affiliation and whether he was a soldier. “I said I am not Masalit,” he told them.

The men searched the house and took all the mobile phones, he said, echoing dozens of other witnesses who said of militiamen seizing their phones. The men then left and began looting the neighbour’s house, Younis recalled.

Days later, Yacoub, a 20-year-old Masalit civilian who took up arms to defend his family, said he saw Karshoum in a land cruiser leading an attack on the city’s southern Al Jabal district. Karshoum was with the RSF’s Hassan during the attack, he said.

“The fighters were shouting, ‘nuba, we will kill you,’” Yacoub said, repeating a term used by Arab tribes in Darfur meaning slaves.

Multiple witnesses said the RSF and Arab militias used the Al Jabal district’s elevated position to shell displaced persons camps and neighbourhoods inhabited by the Masalit. Two people said they saw Karshoum issuing orders at the Abu Zor displaced-persons camp and in Al Madaris.

Mohammed, a social worker, said he spotted Karshoum on May 20, while sheltering from shelling directed by the RSF at Abu Zor, where his father had been living. From behind a wall where he was taking refuge, Mohammed said, he could see and hear Karshoum directing artillery fire towards the governor’s office and telling his forces that they were “getting close.” Mohammed said there was heavy smoke from the bombing that provided him with cover as there was nothing separating him from Karshoum but the wall. Karshoum, he said, was dressed in an olive-green outfit.

Sherif, a 40-year-old Masalit man, said he saw Karshoum in June in the Al Madaris district, and heard him instructing troops to direct their fire at the governor’s office. That month, Sherif said he twice saw Karshoum travelling in a black land cruiser and directing attacks on displaced-persons camps.

In the camp attacks, “shells wiped out entire families,” said Sherif. On June 13, he said he buried dozens of people in the city’s Al Ghabat cemetery who had been killed. Four of his cousins were killed by the RSF in the city, he said.

The former policeman who escaped to Chad said he encountered Karshoum while fleeing El Geneina on the morning of June 15, along with thousands of other Masalit. The deputy governor was accompanied by armed men in RSF uniforms and traditional Arab clothing, riding in three land cruisers mounted with machine guns. Karshoum was rallying the militiamen, the ex-policeman said.

Other survivors have told Reuters that the RSF and Arab militias attacked people repeatedly on the route from El Geneina to Chad. Masalit men were shot and women raped at different points along the way, they said.

In an interview in October, Karshoum said he supported an “independent investigation” into the violence in El Geneina. He said he had tried to mediate between Arab and non-Arab leaders in the city before the war spilled over from Khartoum to El Geneina in an attempt to prevent violence.

Karshoum didn’t respond to follow-up questions about the witness accounts of his role in the fighting.

Moussa Angir, Militia commander

Moussa Angir, a commander in an Arab militia, directed forces during the attacks in El Geneina, witnesses said. In 2021, he was charged over his involvement in a previous round of violence in the city. The photo of Angir was posted on a Facebook account in his name.

Angir is a commander of the Third Front-Tamazuj, an Arab-dominated militia allied with the RSF that has emerged as a force in the recent violence in West Darfur. Six people from El Geneina described seeing Third Front-Tamazuj fighters waging attacks side-by-side with RSF forces in the city this year. In August, the group formally announced its alliance with the RSF.

In 2021, Sudan’s prosecutor-general charged Angir and more than 30 others with murder, sabotage and looting in connection with attacks on a displaced-persons camp on the outskirts of El Geneina, according to a state prosecutor and four lawyers familiar with the case. Dozens of people were killed in the attacks, which took place in late 2019. The court proceeding against Angir and others was disrupted after the Sudanese military and RSF together seized power in a coup in 2021, the state prosecutor told Reuters.

Three people said they witnessed Angir directing forces during the El Geneina attacks this year.

Faisal, 26, a Masalit shop owner who took up arms to defend his family, said he saw Angir on May 13, leading a convoy of land cruisers carrying militiamen in the Al Madaris district. Faisal said he comes from the same district as Angir and recognised the well-known commander’s face. He was watching from a window in a building overlooking a narrow street as Angir’s convoy passed through when he heard Angir ordering his men to “move forward.”

A 39-year-old doctor said he spotted Angir in the company of militiamen at different checkpoints in the city as he travelled around to treat patients. Throughout the assaults, the RSF and Arab militias set up checkpoints in El Geneina to control people’s movement.

The third man, a civilian-turned-fighter, said he saw Angir on June 16, with militiamen at a security installation in the west of El Geneina, where residents trying to flee the city had gathered. Angir did not respond to questions from Reuters. A spokesman for the Tamazuj declined to comment.

A relief worker said he spotted Marfaeen in a market in El Geneina where he said men under the militiaman’s command opened fire on people and looted shops. The militiaman is well-known locally by his nom de guerre, Marfaeen, which means “hyena” in Sudanese Arabic.

Four witnesses described seeing Marfaeen in action in the eastern part of El Geneina. A Masalit man named Gamal said he encountered Marfaeen while shopping for food at the Aredeba market in northeast El Geneina in late May. Marfaeen and militiamen under his command confronted Gamal and his companions and began questioning them about several individuals, including a Masalit lawyer.

“They made us lie on the ground and they asked us a lot of questions,” said Gamal. When he and his companions denied knowing the individuals, he said, the militiamen proceeded to beat them on their feet. They were later let go.

Reuters was unable to contact Marfaeen for this report. A relief worker with an international humanitarian agency said he came across Marfaeen in the Aredeba market around the same time in late May. The relief worker was moving from one district to another as he tried to evade the RSF’s escalating attacks. He said he spotted Marfaeen one day after moving into a house on the edge of the market.

Through a hole in the door, the relief worker said he could see Marfaeen leading a group of nine armed men. The men were in a land cruiser mounted with an anti-aircraft gun and were firing randomly at people, the relief worker said.

People in the streets were shouting, “It’s Marfaeen, Marfaeen,” as they fled.

During the attack, two people fell to the ground, while the rest escaped, the relief worker said. The militiamen then looted some shops, taking meat from a butchery and cash from vegetable sellers.

“I saw him with my own eyes,” the relief worker said of Marfaeen.

• A Reuters report