Al-Kadaris and Al-Khelwat massacres

Overview

Between 14 and 17 February 2025, militants from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) attacked the villages of Al-Kadaris and Al-Khelwat, both located in El Geteina, White Nile State, Sudan. Estimates of the death toll range from approximately 200 to as many as 433 civilians, depending on the source.

Background

The war in Sudan began on 15 April 2023, when the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces attempted to overthrow the Sudanese government led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. The attempted coup led to sustained urban warfare in the capital Khartoum and other major cities, including Nyala and El-Obeid. During RSF offensives in Sennar State and Gezira State, the group carried out systematic attacks on villages along the Nile River, including the Wad An Nora massacre and the Galgani massacre.

In early February 2024, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) launched an offensive and recaptured large parts of Bahri, a northern district of Khartoum. RSF forces retreated along the Nile into White Nile State, an area where the SAF had no presence. In the days before the attacks on Al-Kadaris and Al-Khelwat, the RSF reportedly killed five people and injured five others in El Kirel, north of Geteina.

The Massacres

Before the attacks, the RSF had withdrawn from Gezira State under pressure from the SAF offensive, retreating toward Geteina and Kirel and then further south toward Jabal Awliya, south of Khartoum. The group subsequently returned to White Nile State, where it carried out the killings described in this case.

Emergency Lawyers, a Sudanese rights organization, stated that the attacks occurred over three days, ending on 17 February 2025, in Al-Kadaris and Al-Khelwat. A survivor who spoke to Reuters described an attack on 17 February in which RSF fighters entered the village and shot at residents indiscriminately, including people attempting to flee across the Nile River. Local health centers were reportedly overwhelmed by the number of wounded arriving for treatment, and photographs showed long columns of refugees fleeing the villages.

Emergency Lawyers characterized the event as a "genocide" and estimated that around 200 people were killed. A statement from the Sudanese Armed Forces put the death toll at a minimum of 433 people.

Current Status

The case remains part of the broader, ongoing conflict in Sudan.