2024 Eastern Gezira State Massacres

In October 2024, following the defection of top Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander Abu Aqlah Keikel—who had controlled Gezira State—to the Sudanese Armed Forces, RSF militants began a retaliatory campaign across northern and eastern Gezira State starting on 20 October 2024. Fighters moved through the region destroying and pillaging villages and towns, with the Sudanese Doctors' Union reporting systematic rape, looting of buildings and healthcare facilities, and the burning of structures.

The village of al-Sireha was attacked beginning 24 October 2024 and assaulted for three days; by 29 October at least 141 people had been killed there, with over fifty killed on 25 October alone, and 200 more reported wounded. The Resistance Committees reported at least twelve additional deaths in the village of Saqiaah, noting that rescue workers and medical personnel could not reach victims due to sniper fire and bombing.

The Al Jazirah Conference reported that across thirty settlements, 300 civilians were killed, a figure considered incomplete due to ongoing search efforts and telecommunication outages. Deaths were also reported in Zurqa (eight), Safita al-Ghunomab (fourteen), Maknun (thirteen), Tambul (twelve), Deim Elias (two), Wad Al-Fadl (six), Al-Faj Al-Bashir (eight), and Al-Fawla Al-Afsa and Al-Nasrab (two each). A surviving villager from Ad al-Khadr described RSF militants killing a resident, shooting indiscriminately into the village, and setting farmland ablaze. At least 24 villages began evacuating their populations. The United Nations reported at least ten children killed in the massacres.

On 6 November 2024, the RSF was accused of killing at least 86 people in Al Hilaliya, shooting 13 people dead and fatally poisoning 73 others by distributing food contaminated with urea fertilizer; by 17 November the death toll in the city had reached 527. By 27 November, the Al Jazirah Conference estimated at least 1,000 people had been killed in the massacres; by 11 December that estimate had risen to more than 7,000 for the whole of Jazirah state since December 2023.

Beyond the killings, at least 71 rape cases across Gezira State were attributed to the RSF, including cases involving at least three minors, two of whom died from their injuries. In the town of Rufaa, 37 rapes were reported during RSF attacks from 21 to 26 October. The United Nations reported at least 135,400 people displaced in Gezira State since 20 October, while the Al Jazirah Conference said 400 villages were completely depopulated and 115 others partially emptied. Sudan's Transitional Sovereignty Council ordered Attorney General Mohamed Issa Tayfour to investigate. International reactions condemning the violence came from the United Nations, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United States.