Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the leaders of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Wednesday to immediately investigate and cease their personnel from ill-treating and torturing, summarily executing and mutilating the dead bodies of individuals in their custody.

According to HRW, one image and eight videos uploaded onto social media platforms between August 24, 2023 and July 11 this year documented four cases of summary executions. A video uploaded onto X (formerly Twitter) on June 28 documented the RSF executing at least 21 detained and unarmed men near El Fula, Sudan. The RSF reportedly gained control of El Fula on June 20. A video uploaded onto X on May 8 also showed armed RSF personnel, in military and civilian clothing, executing two detainees 12 kilometers from El Obeid, Sudan.

In addition, four videos showed 18 detainees suffering from ill-treatment and torture. These ill-treatments include beating with sticks, whipping and forcing detainees to walk on their knees. While some victims wore civilian clothing, a substantial number of abusers and victims wore military uniforms in the videos. The detainees seemed to appear unarmed, with some of them restrained by their detainers.

HRW’s Sudan researcher Mohamed Osman called for the torturing of detainees to cease by saying:

Forces from Sudan’s warring parties feel so immune to punishment that they have repeatedly filmed themselves executing, torturing, [] dehumanizing detainees [] and mutilating bodies … These crimes should be investigated as war crimes and those responsible, including commanders of these forces, should be held to account.

HRW stated that international humanitarian law, which applies to the conflict in Sudan, prohibits detainees from being arbitrarily deprived of liberty and the mutilation of dead bodies. HRW wrote:

Summary executions, as well as ill-treatment and torture of detainees are illegal under any circumstances under both international humanitarian law and international human rights law … Under international human rights law, the [UN] Human Rights Committee, the body of independent experts that monitors [the] implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by its [state] parties, has indicated that the disrespectful treatment of human remains may amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of the family of the dead.

Previously, on July 27, local pro-democracy activists El-Fasher Resistance Committees said on Facebook that at least 25 people were reportedly killed and dozens were wounded in an attack on El-Fasher by the RSF. The Resistance Committees accused the militia of “indiscriminately shelling the city’s neighborhoods with heavy artillery” and alleged that the RSF deliberately dropped shells on civilians in the area. The RSF denied launching the assault and declined further comment. This surge of violence came amid weeks of a stalemate in El-Fasher, which is the national SAF army’s last remaining stronghold in the Darfur region and a key front in the civil war with the RSF, which has seen Sudan descend into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises since fighting broke out in April 2023.

In May this year, the UN human rights chief Volker Türk also warned of the potential “humanitarian catastrophe” brought by the escalating violence in the city. Türk then called on commanders of both sides to urgently cease hostilities and resume ceasefire negotiations, highlighting that the city of El-Fasher has a dense population of 1.8 million residents and internally displaced people who are also at imminent risk of famine.