Major battles and massacres of the Darfur campaign of the Sudanese civil war
The Geneina massacre, also the Battle of Geneina, was a series of major battles for control of Geneina, the capital of West Darfur in Sudan, between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias against Masalit self-defense militias and the Sudanese Alliance. The battles primarily lasted between April 24 and June 14, 2023, with major attacks and massacres by the RSF and allied militias on Masalit civilians in the city. After the killing of West Darfur governor Khamis Abakar on June 14, thousands of Masalit civilians were slaughtered in the city between June 14 and June 22 by the RSF and allied militias.
Initial clashes broke out on April 15 between the RSF and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) but dissipated by April 20. Fighting had devolved along tribal lines following attacks on Masalit neighborhoods by the RSF and allied militias, with Masalit civilians taking up arms and forming self-defense militias alongside the Sudanese Alliance with some SAF backing against Arab and non-Masalit Janjaweed militias backed by the RSF.
Janjaweed and RSF fighters overran Masalit resistance in April, with the militias slaughtering and torching Masalit neighborhoods and IDP camps. Bodies of Masalit civilians were piled up in the streets from April to June during the genocidal campaign, and thousands fled to the Sudanese army garrison at Ardamata and towards the Chadian border. The killings of civilians ramped up in mid-June following the killing of West Darfur governor Khamis Abakar (an ethnic Masalit). The RSF and Janjaweed captured the entirety of Geneina by June 22, eliminating all pockets of resistance in neighborhoods they had captured on June 14.
Renewed clashes broke out in Ardamata and Geneina in early November 2023, as RSF and Janjaweed militias stormed the Sudanese Army garrison where thousands of civilians sought refuge from the massacres earlier that year. Over 1,000 civilians and soldiers were massacred following the capture of the garrison.
Background.
War in Darfur.
In 2003, war broke out in western Sudan's Darfur region between the government-sponsored, predominantly Arab Janjaweed militia aided by the Sudanese Armed Forces against the predominantly non-Arab Sudan Liberation Movement and Justice and Equality Movement, after SLM and JEM launched attacks against the Sudanese government and accusing them of genocide.
On 25 March 2003, the rebels seized the garrison town of Tine along the Chadian border, seizing large quantities of supplies and arms. The rebellion began partially due to feelings of marginalization among Zaghawa, Fur, and Masalit civilians in Darfur following Arabization campaigns carried out by President Omar al-Bashir. In response, Bashir mobilized Arab civilians into militias called Janjaweed who conducted a genocide of non-Arab civilians through scorched earth campaigns. In 2013, the formation of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by Hemedti, a Rizeigat Arab, began conducting operations against the rebel groups. The RSF was known for its brutality against civilian areas sympathetic to the rebels.
El Geneina, as the capital of West Darfur, saw an extensive amount of violence, due to its location as the sultanate of the Masalit people. The city had a population of 250,000 in 2008.
In 2020, the war came to an end after several rebel groups signed a peace treaty with the Sudanese government following the Sudanese Revolution and the ousting of Omar al-Bashir.
Attacks on Geneina (2019-2023).
Despite the Juba Peace Agreement ending the War in Darfur and the UNAMID peacekeeping mission, Geneina and surrounding areas were attacked by the RSF and Janjaweed between 2019 and 15 April 2023. The first attack was on December 31, 2019, at the Krinding IDP camp, killing 101 people. The camp was attacked again in January and April 2021, several months after UNAMID withdrew, killing 150 and 144 people respectively. After the January 2021 attack, Masalit civilians gained weapons and started forming self-defense militias, leading to sit-in protests on the roads leading to Geneina by Arab civilians.
These attacks on IDP camps and Masalit-dominated areas in and around Geneina continued into 2022, with a massacre in Kreinik killing over 200 people. The SAF and international monitors rarely intervened in these attacks, and the RSF categorically denied involvement. In 2022, both Masalit and Arab militias, including the Sudanese Alliance and RSF, began a massive recruitment campaign along tribal lines in all of Darfur.
Demographics of Geneina.
Neighborhoods in Geneina were often mixed between majority-Masalit, majority-Arab, mixed Arab and Masalit, and mixed Arab and non-Arab groups such as Tama, Bargo, and Zaghawa. Many non-Arab and non-Masalit groups immigrated to the city as refugees within the past twenty years as refugees in the War in Darfur. The al-Jamarik and al-Madariss neighborhoods were predominantly Masalit and the al-Tadhamun neighborhood was home to the Masalit sultanate and other prominent Masalit figures. The al-Naseem and Um Duwein neighborhoods were predominantly Arab.
The largest neighborhood in Geneina, al-Jabal, was mixed with blocks 1 to 3 being Arab and blocks 4 to 7 were Masalit. al-Kifah, al-Shati, al-Imtidad, and al-Salam neighborhoods were mixed between Arabs and non-Arabs, with the latter three being home to wealthier traders. There is no map defining exact borders of neighborhoods.
Prelude.
West Darfur.
Geneina was considered strategic due to its location as the capital of West Darfur and the center of the Dar Masalit sultanate. The city housed 540,000 civilians pre-war. In late March and early April 2023, clashes between Arabs and non-Arabs in Geneina, Foro Baranga, and Tendelti prompted West Darfur governor and Sudanese Alliance founder and commander Khamis Abakar to declare a state of emergency in the region and a nighttime curfew on April 10. The clashes in Foro Baranga were between the Tama and Arabs, and left 24 people dead and 24,000 displaced.
Khartoum.
Tensions between Abdelfattah al-Burhan, the military leader of Sudan who took power in the 2021 Sudanese coup d'état and Hemedti intensified in early 2023 over Hemedti's resistance to integrating the RSF into the Sudanese Armed Forces and Burhan's resistance to transitioning into civilian rule. These tensions erupted into war on April 15, when RSF fighters stormed Khartoum International Airport and other Sudanese Army bases across the country. The SAF was able to eliminate rebellions at RSF bases in the eastern and southern parts of the country, namely Kassala, Sennar, and Blue Nile State, while the RSF recruited Janjaweed to storm and isolate Sudanese forces in Darfur and Kordofan. Much of Khartoum and surrounding cities of Omdurman and Khartoum Bahri became a warzone.
Battle.
Initial clashes (15–17 April).
The battle in Geneina broke out on 15 April 2023, and took place in the western outskirts of the city. The initial clashes lasted for an hour and a half, according to a Masalit tribal leader, and ended at noon. Civilians began sheltering in their homes, and the Masalit leader stated the situation in the city was "turbulent and unstable". Clashes continued into the next day, but little is known about them. The Rapid Support Forces claimed late in the night of 16 April that they had captured the Geneina Airport, but this was impossible to verify at the time. A nationwide ceasefire, originating in Khartoum, also failed to hold up in Geneina on 16 April.
By 17 April, the El-Geneina hospital had closed due to the fighting. At the time, the death toll and exact location of fighting in Geneina were impossible to verify due to fog of war. While some sources stated fighting broke out between the SAF and RSF, others claimed clashes were actually between Arabs and the non-Arab Masalit. Ahmed Gouja, a journalist in Nyala, corroborated the claims of the Arab-Masalit clashes, and that civilians had stolen weapons from the police station to protect themselves and their neighborhoods. In the first days of clashes, Sudanese forces also opened up their armories and distributed 400 weapons to Masalit self-defense groups and the Sudanese Alliance. OCHA reported that UN offices were being looted in the city, and markets, homes, and offices of other humanitarian organizations were being torched. On 23 April, SAF soldiers attempted to recapture parts of the city from the RSF, but were pushed back into the army headquarters.
On April 22, civilians in Geneina reported hearing rumors of RSF and Janjaweed leaders mobilizing in Shukri, a village on the road between Adré and Geneina. These mobilizations moved to Geneina and surrounding neighborhoods until the 24th, when Janjaweed and RSF fighters began setting up positions around Geneina. Around this same time on April 23, community elders and SAF officers convened to seek an end to the conflict. In a statement intended to be released on April 24, the attendees concluded that the SAF and RSF should refrain from fighting in Geneina, and that the Central Reserve Police would be deployed to the market in the city that had been closed since April 15.
Clashes turn to massacres (April 24–May 2).
From 24 to 25 April, clashes intensified starting in the al-Jamarik neighborhood. In the al-Jabal neighborhood, Arab militiamen attacked the headquarters of the joint Sudanese-Chadian forces and stole about eleven armored vehicles. Arab militiamen also attacked municipal and state organizations, including the town's police headquarters, market, and bank. The RSF then attacked the majority-Masalit neighborhoods and IDP camps of al-Madariss, al-Mansoura, and al-Tadhamun, along with the Central Market and aforementioned al-Jabal and al-Jamarik neighborhoods. These incursions were led by the RSF's commander in West Darfur Abdel Rahman Jumma. RSF fighters deliberately targeted areas that civilians gathered at, including government offices and Zahra girl's boarding school. In targeting neighborhoods, the militias and RSF went door to door in every building, and torched larger buildings such as schools. Masalit men of all ages were targeted by the militias, and women were raped and hunted.
As the RSF and Janjaweed attacked Masalit-majority neighborhoods, thousands of Masalit civilians headed towards former UNAMID bases, police stations, and SAF outposts searching for weapons to defend themselves. Many police who were Masalit themselves opened the armories further to civilians, leading to some resistance at the SAF bases that was overrun as the bases were stormed and looted by Masalit civilians. One resident of al-Jamarik stated "From that day forward, everyone had a gun." In a massacre at the Labor Office in a Masalit-majority neighborhood, at least thirty-one civilians gathered there were killed.
The fighting on 25 April began when Sudanese Alliance fighters attacked RSF bases in El Geneina. Volker Perthes, the UN representative to Sudan, released a statement that day claiming that tribal leaders in El-Geneina restarted mobilization campaigns. Perthes also stated militias from Central Darfur and North Darfur were joining fighting in El-Geneina. The Darfur Bar Association stated that 25 people were killed on 25 April alone, and thousands of refugees had fled to Chad. The UN's OHCHR claimed over 96 people were killed. The Deputy Police Director of West Darfur, Brig. Gen. Abdel-Baqi al-Hassan Mohamed, was killed in the fighting as well. There was no power and hardly any telecommunication in Geneina after 24 April.
Residents of El-Geneina claimed they saw "pick-up trucks full of dead people". One resident, speaking to the BBC, claimed RSF soldiers burnt down all refugee camps in and around the city, and that fighters were attacking houses with rockets. Community leaders in the city also stated that gunmen attacked displaced refugees in the center of the city, including the Abu Zar refugee camp. Médecins Sans Frontières released a statement claiming that the El Geneina Teaching Hospital was looted by militants on 28 April, and the organization deplored the looting. Many hospitals closed due to being looted, while ambulances and paramedics were frequently attacked. The few hospitals that remained open in late April and early May reported a lack of blood for transfusions and concomitant equipment, intravenous fluids and general medical supplies. Yousra Elbagir, in an interview, stated that UN offices evacuated foreign nationals in the city but left behind Sudanese nationals. 
On 27 April, RSF militants launched a large attack on Masalit positions in the city. Around 6 am, heavy fighting broke out in the al-Majlis neighborhood, and quickly spread across the municipal headquarters of the city, according to the Dar Masalit Union. These clashes continued into 28 April, and fighting was fierce in all neighborhoods of Geneina. By 1 May, the death toll in El Geneina had risen to over 180 civilians killed, with one doctor estimating over 191 killed. The UN reported that by 10 May, over 450 people had died in the fighting, and between 7,500 and 12,000 sought refuge in the SAF military base in