A grim pattern of violence
According to CNN’s joint investigation, Port Sudan forces — with the direct knowledge of their commander, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan — carried out ethnic war crimes in Al-Jazirah State between January and May 2024.
A UN official who reviewed the report described it as “genocide on ethnic grounds.” CNN noted that many of these atrocities “remained largely secret,” carried out under tight military control and information suppression.
The investigation relied on satellite images, survivor accounts, and field analyses to document “horrific violations” and deliberate campaigns of terror, including mass executions, village burnings, and targeted attacks on non-Arab communities suspected of sympathizing with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
“Unprecedented brutality”
Testimonies gathered from survivors describe a campaign of indiscriminate bombing and collective punishment. Port Sudan forces and allied militias allegedly used “unprecedented brutal methods,” including field executions of civilians, sexual violence, and systematic rape as a weapon of war.
Entire villages were reportedly torched, with homes, markets, and hospitals destroyed in what investigators called a strategy of ethnic cleansing aimed at forcing displacement.
These findings follow a broader U.S. determination that the RSF itself committed genocide during Sudan’s civil war — underscoring how both sides of the conflict are accused of mass atrocities. Read more here.
Massacres and mass graves
One of the deadliest episodes occurred in the village of Al-Kuraiba, where videos showed dozens of men detained and brutally assaulted by Port Sudan forces, accused of belonging to the RSF.
Another massacre unfolded near the Police Bridge, where footage captured “about 50 bodies in a massacre scene,” according to CNN. A high-ranking intelligence informant told the network that many victims were buried in mass graves — not all of them fighters, but also civilians executed merely on suspicion of loyalty to the RSF.
Satellite imagery taken days later revealed white objects consistent with human remains wrapped for burial. Other witnesses reported that civilians were shot and dumped into water canals, their bodies later visible after water levels receded.
“The dead were not only from the Rapid Support Forces,” said an intelligence source. “Some were civilians executed based on suspicions.”
“Al-Burhan is above the corpses”
One intelligence informant told CNN that just days after mass executions near the canal by the village of Bika, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan addressed his soldiers from the same spot where the victims had been thrown.
Satellite images taken in May 2024, after the water level fell, appeared to show dozens of bodies at the canal’s bottom — only meters away from where Al-Burhan had been filmed.
CNN reported that the attacks were not isolated incidents, but part of “a wider campaign of ethnically motivated attacks” targeting at least 39 villages across Al-Jazirah State.
Ethnic targeting and impunity
The violence was concentrated against the Kanabi, a non-Arab farming community often derisively referred to by militias as “Black Sudanese.” Members of a UN fact-finding mission described the campaign as “targeted genocide on ethnic grounds.”
CNN’s report concluded that impunity remains the driving force behind the continuation of such crimes, noting that Port Sudan forces have failed to investigate the atrocities committed by their ranks or allied militias.
A nation still in turmoil
Sudan’s civil war has displaced more than 14 million people and left tens of thousands dead. With both Port Sudan forces and the RSF now accused of genocide, the country faces mounting pressure from international courts and humanitarian bodies to ensure accountability.
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