Our Purpose Is Only Executing' - How Sudan's Vicious Militia Carried out a Massacre
Alert: This Report Presents Disturbing Details of Shootings.
Militiamen laugh as they ride on the bed of a utility vehicle, speeding past a row of multiple corpses and heading towards the sinking Sudanese evening sky.
"Look at all this accomplishment. See this ethnic cleansing," a combatant shouts.
He smiles as he directs the camera on his person and his fellow fighters, their RSF identification on display: "These people shall all perish this way."
The men are celebrating a mass killing that humanitarian officials believe killed over 2,000 people in the Sudanese urban center of el-Fasher during October.
An Urban Center Severed from the World
After maintaining the city under siege for nearly 24 months, from August the RSF proceeded to reinforce its dominance and blockade the leftover civilian population.
Satellite images demonstrate that fighters commenced to erect a immense sand wall - a elevated dirt embankment - encircling the edges of the city, sealing off roads and preventing humanitarian assistance.
During the encirclement worsened, 78 people were killed in an militia assault on a religious building on 19 September, while the international organization reported dozens additional were murdered in unmanned aircraft and cannon bombardments on a makeshift community in the autumn.
Disturbing Footage Reveals Weaponless Individuals Shot
At dawn on late October the paramilitary force defeated the remaining government positions and took control of the main headquarters in the urban area, the command center of the Military Unit, as the government forces retreated.
Perhaps the most horrific videos to emerge and analysed revealed the results of a massacre at a educational facility on the western side of the urban area, where numerous dead bodies were visible scattered over the area.
An elderly person clad in a traditional garment was seated isolated amid the victims. The individual looked to look as a militiaman armed with a weapon walked descending the stairs towards him. pointing his firearm, the gunman released a solitary round at the man, who dropped to the ground lifeless.
"For what reason is this person even living," one militiaman cried. "Execute this one."
Orbital photography taken on late October indicated to substantiate that shootings were furthermore carried out on the thoroughfares of the city, as reported by a analysis issued by the university analysis team.
One observer who communicated said they had witnessed "numerous of our relatives getting massacred - they were assembled in a specific area and everyone eliminated."
Militia Leaders Try to Implement Reputation Management
During the period that followed the massacre, militia commander acknowledged that his troops had carried out "atrocities" and said the occurrences would be examined.
Among those detained was after a analysis documenting his executions. Meticulously orchestrated and edited video posted on the RSF's authorized messaging account reveal the commander being taken into a prison room at a prison on the perimeter of the city.
At the same time, the RSF and associated online profiles started seeking to reshape the story.
Posts showing its militiamen distributing aid to civilians were shared by various accounts, while the paramilitary's media office released several clips claiming to display the compassionate management of army detainees.
In spite of the online initiative being used by the paramilitary, their conduct in al-Fashir have provoked worldwide anger.