An investigation by Ofuk News reveals that the Sudanese army and its followers committed mass murders of civilians

The horrors of Sudan's civil war are continually worsening, with an unimaginable human cost. More than 150,000 civilians are believed to have been killed, nearly 12 million people have been forcibly displaced, and many areas are suffering from famine.

Fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for control of the country has raged since April 2023, and atrocities committed by the RSF appear to have reached new levels of extremism in recent weeks, with an apparent massacre taking place in the city of El Fasher in the country's western Darfur region. The United States has imposed sanctions on both sides for alleged war crimes and is leading efforts to secure a ceasefire in the conflict.

However, while ethnically motivated killings committed by the RSF have been widely documented, Ofoq News can now reveal a pattern of ethnically motivated atrocities committed by the Sudanese army and its allies. A multi-month joint investigation by the Ofoq News Network and the Investigative Newsroom (Lighthouse Reports) scrutinized the actions of the Sudanese Armed Forces and traced what happened when its forces retook the strategic city of Wad Madani and its surrounding areas in Gezira State at the beginning of the year.

By reviewing hundreds of videos, analyzing satellite images, tracking whistleblowers, and interviewing survivors on the ground in Sudan, Ofok News has uncovered evidence suggesting that the operation, carried out by the Sudanese Armed Forces and affiliated paramilitary groups, was characterized by ethnic violence, mass killings of civilians, and the dumping of bodies in canals and mass graves. Ofoq News Network and Lighthouse Reports spoke to multiple sources who claimed that orders for this campaign were issued from the top of the Sudanese Armed Forces.

Ofok News contacted the Sudanese Armed Forces for comment on these allegations, but did not receive a response. In January, the Sudanese Armed Forces condemned what they described as “individual violations” following the recapture of Wad Madani, the capital of Jazira State, and announced the opening of an investigation into the attacks.

Ofoq News Network contacted the Sudanese Armed Forces to inquire about the results of the investigation, without receiving any response. Sudan, located in the northeast of the African continent, is one of the largest countries on the African continent, and is bordered by 7 countries, including Egypt.

Directly south of the capital, Khartoum, lies the main agricultural lands of Gezira State, which the warring parties have alternated control of several times. Here is the map above of the areas of control in February 2025.

Gezira State provides much of the food for Sudan's more than 50 million people, including nearly half of the country's pre-war wheat. The Blue Nile flows through the center of the island, and Wad Medani is located on the western bank of the river.

The state also includes one of the largest irrigation projects in the world, which is a network of canals and ditches extending over 2,700 miles, known as the Al Jazeera Project. One of these waterways passes next to the village of Beka, which some Sudanese army forces crossed as fighters advanced towards Wad Madani from several directions starting on January 8, 2025, and retook the state capital on January 11.

In campaign videos reviewed by Ofoq News Network and the Investigative Newsroom, soldiers repeatedly describe those they target as “collaborators” with the Rapid Support Forces. Joy Ngozi Esiello, a member of the UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission in Sudan, described the term as a “baseless accusation” used to justify ethnically motivated attacks against civilians.

In the Beka area, fighters killed people they accused of collaborating with the Rapid Support Forces, threw their bodies into the water, and threw others while they were still alive, according to an officer from the Sudanese General Intelligence Service who was on the ground at the time. Another officer from the same agency, who was commanding forces in the region during the same period, confirmed this practice.

A few days later, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces and Sudan's de facto leader, delivered a victory speech to a group of soldiers chanting under a bridge next to the waterway in the Beka area. In the days and weeks that followed the SAF's advance towards Wad Madani, bodies began floating on the surface of the water in the canal system itself.

Videos posted online on January 18, which Ofoq News geolocated to a bridge located less than 80 kilometers north of Beka, show at least 8 bodies stuck in the water. All of them are either naked or wearing civilian clothes, and at least one of them has his hands tied behind his back.

In one video, RSF fighters claim that victims were shot in the head and thrown into the canal during army control. Ofoq News Network was unable to independently confirm the identity of the victims or how they accessed the channels.

However, water from Al Jazeera's canals flows north between Beka and where the bodies were found, which is consistent with whistleblower accounts, RSF claims, and expert analysis that the bodies were washed up from an area near Wad Madani. Lawrence Owens, a forensic anthropologist who reviewed the footage for Ofoq News, said the victims appeared to have been dead for about a week, a time period consistent with the SAF's campaign to take control of the city.

Ofoq News Network contacted the Sudanese Armed Forces and Al-Burhan’s office to comment on the results related to the events in and around the Wad Madani area, but neither of them responded. Satellite images taken in May revealed what appeared to be dozens more bodies disposed of in canals in the Beka area, just feet from where Burhan gave his victory speech.

Images analyzed by the Human Research Laboratory of the Yale University School of Public Health and the Ofoq News network showed the presence of many white objects at the bottom of the canal, whose dimensions and appearance matched wrapped bodies. In another branch of the adjacent canal, analysis of satellite images revealed more objects matching human bodies on January 14.

Dozens of villages in Gezira State were attacked by the Sudanese army and its allied militias. A woman from the village of Dar es Salaam, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, said fighters loyal to the Sudanese Armed Forces killed four of her children and her brother on January 11.

“They said: ‘We want to kill everyone in Dar es Salaam, we will not leave anyone behind,’” she recounted, adding that some of her loved ones were shot dead, and one was killed with a bottle. The woman reported that fighters loyal to the Sudanese Armed Forces also set fire to houses in the village before she was able to escape.

Satellite images analyzed by Ofoq News show several buildings burning between January 11 and 12, consistent with the crime of arson. In the village of Taiba, on January 10, the so-called Sudan Shield Forces, a militia loyal to the Sudanese Armed Forces led by Abu Aqla Kikil, who was later sanctioned by the European Union in July for “targeting the Campos,” opened fire on civilians and set fire to homes, according to an informed source and local residents.

A Sudanese Armed Forces officer who was on the ground at the time told Ofoq News and Light House Reports that he witnessed Sudan Shield fighters shooting civilians, including the elderly, women and children. The killings and trauma inflicted on the region during this campaign left an indelible mark on the island state.

“I can't go back,” said a woman from the village of Dar es Salaam. The area's canals remained overflowing with polluted contents for weeks after the violence.

Another woman told how the waterways brought in more bodies every few days. But for victims and survivors alike, achieving justice or accountability remains impossible.