CNN investigation: SAF campaign in Sudan’s El Gezira ‘constitutes ethnic targeting’
Sudanese Armed Forces General Yasir al-Atta addresses a public meeting with Keikel (second from the right) on January 19, nine days after the Sudan Shield Forces attack on Tayba, saying “[b]ecause now, the Sudanese army, the Sudanese police, the Sudanese intelligence and security, the Joint Forces, the Sudan Shield, and the Sudanese Popular Resistance are all the Sudanese people; they are the Sudanese army”. Posted to the Sudan Shield Forces Facebook page on January 19, 2025.
A joint investigative report by Cable News Network (CNN) and Lighthouse Reports indicates the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and allied groups conducted a deliberate campaign of ethnic-based killings in El Gezira state, central Sudan, between October 2024 and May 2025.
The investigation, published Tuesday, found that the military campaign launched between October 2024 and May 2025 to recapture the state and its capital, Wad Madani, “was marked by ethnic violence, the mass killing of civilians, and the dumping of bodies into canals and mass graves.” The report verified 59 attacks during the campaign and is supported by approximately 600 pieces of visual evidence, ranging from geolocated ground footage to forensic satellite data and shadow analysis.
Mass killings
In the town of Beika, west of Wad Madani, two General Intelligence Service (GIS) officers who were present during the campaign told CNN that soldiers executed people accused of collaborating with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and dumped their bodies into a canal, in some cases while they were still alive. Satellite imagery reviewed by investigators identified dozens of wrapped bodies in the waterway, while video footage showed bodies along the canal dressed in civilian clothing. Just days after the killings, SAF leader Abdelfattah El Burhan was filmed triumphantly addressing troops in Beika, standing only feet from the canal.
The investigation also details the role of the Sudan Shield Forces (SSF), a SAF-allied armed group led by Abu Agla Keikel. On January 10, the SSF allegedly attacked the village of Tayba, killing at least 26 people, including children, while plundering food supplies and burning homes. Although the SSF denied involvement in abuses against El Gezira communities on January 14, Keikel was sanctioned by the European Union in July 2025 for targeting the Kanabi people; a community of predominantly non-Arab agricultural workers from Darfur and South Sudan who settled in the region decades ago.
Jaafar Mohamedein, secretary-general of the Kanabi Congress Central Committee, told Radio Dabanga that the committee is currently preparing a comprehensive legal file for the International Criminal Court (ICC), saying the weight of the visual evidence collected by CNN “undermines any attempt to deny or justify” the actions of the SAF-led armed groups. “These are flagrant violations of international law that do not expire with time.”
The report findings confirm previous reports of ethnic-based violence in El Gezira. Radio Dabanga covered in March an appeal by 21 international human rights and pro-democracy organizations urging the SAF to end “ethnically motivated killings, enforced disappearances, and the destruction of agricultural camps” in El Gezira.
While the SAF previously stated it was investigating isolated incidents, the army has yet to follow up on or publish the results of these probes. The SAF also did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment.
The joint investigation was published by CNN and is accessible here.
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