Sudanese farmers face nightmares as RSF steal what they sow
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RSF fighters wipe out stocks of wheat and other crops and block farmers from accessing their own fields, as confirmed by residents and agricultural officials.
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People gather to collect water in Khartoum, Sudan, on May 28, 2023. (AP)
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been spreading fear in Sudan's Sharafat Alhalaween village as they seize cars from locals who in turn complained to commanders of the paramilitary group, Reuters reported.
The commanders told the villagers to rest assured that the group would protect civilians, according to four villagers, but soon after, the RSF released a video on social media and seen by Reuters alleging to have dealt with unspecified "rogue actors" in the region.
The villagers then relayed to the news agency the next day that dozens of RSF members invaded the area on motorcycles and pickup trucks, firing guns in the air.
Some of the fighters were dressed in uniforms and stormed from door to door, grabbing money and valuables, which led many villagers to flee their homes.
Sudan's central El Gezira state known as a key farming region and strategic crossroads just south of the capital, Khartoum, has been suffering under the same path. Forty-three people from 20 communities were interviewed by Reuters, including residents, activists and RSF recruits, who recounted the theft, kidnapping, and killing following the group's seizure of the state back in December.
A group of activists called the Wad Madani Resistance Committee recalled that when RSF fighters don't find anything valuable, they start kidnapping people for ransom, and threaten to kill them if families don't pay. The activists document RSF raids across the state.
The paramilitary fighters wiped out stocks of wheat and other crops and blocked farmers from accessing their own fields, as confirmed by residents and agricultural officials.
Read next: Sudan's army, paramilitary RSF using starvation as weapon: UN experts
Last month, the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned against the country sliding into famine, citing the destruction of infrastructure by the RSF and the disruption of the agricultural season in the renowned Gezira Scheme.
In a statement, the ministry said that, under the supervision of its regional sponsors, the RSF "continues its malicious plan to cause famine in the country, by deliberately and systematically disrupting agricultural activity in food production areas, intimidating farmers, and destroying the infrastructure of the agricultural sector, as well as the looting of agricultural machinery, seeds, and crops of the winter and summer seasons."
The statement pointed out that "the ultimate goal of the plan is to force people out of their production areas and replace them with militia members and foreign mercenaries."
"Due to this terrorist campaign, production was disrupted in parts of the Gezira Scheme for the first time in a hundred years, in addition to threatening the agricultural season in the states of Sennar and Blue Nile and the al-Rahad Scheme," the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated.
