On January 10, the village of Tayba in Gezira State, central Sudan, was attacked by the Sudan Shield Forces, killing 26 people, including a child. The group is known for repeated attacks on civilian property and the seizure of food supplies, in violation of International Humanitarian Law (IHL). The attack was part of a strategy of Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and their allies to regain control of Gezira state, which is under the control of the Rapid Suppor Forces (RSF). It came the day after the attack on the nearby village of Al-Mugharb. Human Rights Watch interviewed some of the survivors and found that the villages targeted were believed to support the RSF. Dozens of Sudan Shield fighters arrived in the morning and began firing indiscriminately at men and boys, then setting buildings on fire.
The Sudan Shiel Forces is an armed group allied to the SAF in the civil war that began on 15 April 2023. It was founded in 2022 by Abu Aqla Keikel, mainly among the Arab population, in Gezira state. The group originally sided with the SAF but then switched to the RSF and then back to the SAF. They are notorious for their sexual assaults on women. At least 15,000 people have been killed since then. The total number of known forcibly displaced people is 12,851,799. This is one of the worst displacement crises in the world. Tchad, Ethiopia and South Sudan are currently hosting refugees in their territories, in overcrowded camps.
The conflict is the result of fighting between the SAF, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Mohamed Hamdan "Hemedti" Dagalo. The initial reason for the rift was differences over how the country should be governed after they worked together in the April 2019 coup that ended Omar al-Bashir's dictatorship.
Jean-Baptiste Gallopin, Senior Crisis, Conflict and Arms researcher at Human Rights Watch, underlines the importance of investigating and holding accountable those involved in abuses, especially the commanders of the Sudan Shield Forces.
