Sudanese face horrors of war in Rapid Support Forces detention centers in Khartoum. Throughout the 23 months of war, the Sudanese people were not only victims of displacement and migration, but also killed through bombing and torture. More than 150,000 people have been killed during the conflict, which began two years ago when Sudan’s army and the RSF began a vicious struggle for power.

 

Soba Prison

Soba Prison is one of the largest prisons in the national capital, Khartoum. It was first opened on June 2021 with total capacity of 3600 prisoners.

It was built to modern specifications, but the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) transformed it into the largest detention center for military personnel, civilians, and politicians for two years during the period when the RSF controlled the capital.

The notorious prison witnessed the deaths of many of those inside, with dozens of detainees dying of starvation or torture at the hands of RSF personnel.

Despite the modern specifications of the prison, according to former detainees, the RSF personnel transformed it into a savage and terrifying ghost house. Its cells witnessed brutal torture that led to the deaths of many victims.

 

The smell of death

Inside the Rapid Support Forces’ detention centers distributed throughout Khartoum State, the stench of death pervades. Civilian buildings, which have been converted into detention centers and prisons, lie alongside recently discovered mass graves.

According to government authorities, the Rapid Support Forces were deliberately and extrajudicially killing civilians and detained soldiers. They have already created 117 mass graves, some of which were located near torture sites for detainees.

Mohamed Jumaa, one of the survivors says about his time in detention by the Rapid Support Forces in Soba Prison said, “They beat me with iron wires and tortured me severely. My head was bleeding profusely, as were my legs, from the beatings with iron rods.”

He continues, “I was accused of being affiliated with the Armed Forces Intelligence and of going to “Althawra area” to receive instructions from the army, but I am a civilian and have no connection to the warring parties.”

The Rapid Support Forces have used the prison as a detention center since taking control of Khartoum in mid-April 2023, detaining groups of civilians, military personnel, children, and women, estimated at approximately 6,000 detainees, according to human rights reports.

 

Detention centers

According to activists, the Rapid Support Forces have 44 detention centers distributed across the three cities of Khartoum State: Khartoum, Khartoum Bahri, and Omdurman.

Based on survivors’ testimonies, many detainees died either as a result of systematic torture or due to diseases and epidemics that spread within the detention areas, in addition to the deliberate absence of health care by the Rapid Support Forces, where detainees are starved and denied medical examination.

Organizations and activists concerned with defending human rights in Sudan stated that they have evidence that these forces are detaining more than 10,000 people, including 4,500 civilians, in inhumane conditions in several places in the capital, Khartoum, according to a report.

“The violations are multiple, complex and very diverse. All types of violations that can happen to the human element have happened to the Sudanese inside detention centers, starting with killing, dragging and gender-based violence, in addition to enforced disappearance and illegal arrests from both sides” Rehab Al Mubarak – Human Rights Activist, Lawyer and Member of the Emergency Lawyers Association said.

The Rapid Support Forces detention centers are often residential buildings or government buildings, while the Armed Forces detention centers are barracks or abandoned buildings on the outskirts of military areas.

While more than 2.8 million people have fled the Sudanese capital since the outbreak of the armed conflict between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, Khartoum has turned into a large prison for the remaining civilians.

According to a report by the Sudanese human rights group “Emergency Lawyers”, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, and unlawful detention have escalated dramatically in the prisons of the Rapid Support Forces and the Armed Forces, where detainees are subjected to a wide range of torture and cruel treatment, including starvation, sexual assault, and even death in detention.

Montasir Mahmood is another survivor from torture inside Soba Prison said that RSF soldiers kidnapped him from his neighborhood in Omdurman and locked him 40 kilometers away inside Soba Prison in miserable conditions for weeks.

He revealed that prisoners have been subjected to torture, starvation and deprivation of health care.

 

Mass Graves

Human rights reports paint a bleak picture of the Rapid Support Forces’ detention centers. Reliable UN reports reveal that thousands of civilians have been subjected to arbitrary arrest, torture, and ill-treatment, as well as being deprived of food, water, and contact with their families by both warring factions.

In the notorious Soba prison, press reports revealed the deaths of dozens of detainees, both military personnel and civilians, under torture.

Military source revealed that at least 133 detainees have died in Soba Prison in Khartoum, where they were detained by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) from the start of the war until the army took control of Khartoum two weeks ago.

The arrests carried out by the Rapid Support Forces during the past period have focused on the states of Khartoum, Al-Jazirah, Sennar, El Fasher, White Nile, and Darfur.

At least 117 mass graves have been discovered across the Sudanese capital Khartoum so far, amid escalating civil conflict, local news agencies reported.

According to human rights activists most of these mass graves are located near RSF detention centers widespread across Khartoum state.

Earlier this year, authorities began the process of exhuming bodies from mass graves in parts of Omdurman, the second-largest city of the country. In May, 465 bodies of civilians were also discovered in the Al-Salihah area of Omdurman.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by fierce fighting between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), with both factions vying for control amid a stalled transition to civilian rule.

According to UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than four million people have fled Sudan since the outbreak of the war.

Estimates of fatalities vary, though research from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine suggests that over 61,000 people were killed in the state of Khartoum alone during the first 14 months of the conflict. Local media have reported a death toll as high as 130,000.