How do the army and the Rapid Support Forces deal with the bodies of war dead in Khartoum? | policy

Al Jazeera Net correspondents

Khartoum – Speaking about how the Rapid Support Forces, in which he was imprisoned, dealt with the bodies of his fellow detainees, journalist Tariq Abdullah spoke to Al Jazeera Net, saying, “Our arrival at Soba prison, southeast of the capital, Khartoum, coincided with the removal of 12 bodies from one ward of the prison. They died as a result of thirst and hunger, as they were.” Most of the deaths are from those suffering from chronic diseases or from malnutrition and poor quality of the place.”

Tariq, the editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram Al-Youm newspaper, said, “The detainees had to place the bodies in bags that were designated for those who died in the Corona pandemic, and were found in hospitals. The bodies were then placed in boxes on open carts and taken to an unknown destination, accompanied by a small number of detainees.” Members of the Rapid Support Militia.

The condition of the bodies

Tariq, a journalist specializing in crime news, asserts that shrouding the dead in the Rapid Support detention centers is not done in the Islamic manner, and graves are not dug for them in the usual manner. Nor did any of the prisoners participate in the funeral of their dead colleagues in the prison, and all they can do is perform their prayers. They must pray in absentia, as they used to do – in the first days of his arrest – in Al-Riyadh prison, east of Khartoum.

He stated that he did not know whether the Rapid Support Forces were burying those bodies, throwing them in the sea, or burning them, as happens in India, as he put it. But he knows from what he saw during his detention by the Rapid Support that they cannot dig a grave to hide the body of their detainee.

The issue of war corpses in Khartoum and the manner in which the Rapid Support Forces, or the Sudanese authorities, deal with them, has remained one of the hot issues that arise from time to time, amid fears of the possibility of an environmental catastrophe occurring as a result of the presence of corpses that were not buried, and remained for a long time on the roads and in some places. Houses and civilian areas.

After the Sudanese army took control of large parts of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, recently, and extended its control over the areas that were in the hands of the Rapid Support Forces, there was renewed talk of those concerned about the bodies dumped in the roads, and the extent to which the procedures followed by the Sudanese authorities regarding them conform to international standards.

Burial attempts

The Humanitarian Aid Commissioner in Khartoum State, Khaled Abdel Rahim, revealed – to Al Jazeera Net – the procedures followed by the authorities to deal with the bodies, including the bodies of Rapid Support soldiers, and said, “In the beginning, a committee is formed from the police, the prosecution, forensic medicine, the Ministry of Health, and the Sudanese Red Crescent Society, and the committee visits the area.” Where there are bodies.”

He added, “If the bodies are not decomposed, they are sprayed with disinfectant materials and wrapped in medical bags, then they are gently collected and placed in a large transport vehicle and transported. Then a large hole is dug where the bodies are stacked in an organized manner and buried.” He explained that if the bodies decompose, they are collected with specific equipment, and then the same steps are taken.

The commissioner said that in both cases, large marks are placed on the pit to indicate that it is a mass grave. He stressed that the vast majority of the bodies are those of Rapid Support personnel, and said that they are dealt with in a legal and humane manner that preserves their dignity, “because in the end they are Muslims and we must cover them and bury them according to According to Islamic law, which preserves their dignity.”

The Sudanese Minister of Health, Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim, had explained that the bodies in the areas that were liberated were removed immediately, but he did not rule out that there would be effects of the remnants of war on humans for a long-term period.

Difficult circumstances

The war that broke out in Sudan since April 15, 2023 imposed a complex reality, as eyewitnesses in the neighborhoods that witnessed military clashes between the army and the Rapid Support revealed the presence of large numbers of decomposed and rotting bodies in the roads, homes, and civilian areas that became the scene of bloody confrontations.

Witness Maryam (a pseudonym) told Al Jazeera Net that there were many bodies buried superficially inside nearby houses, squares and squares in the middle of the neighborhood where she lives in the old Omdurman area, due to the intensification of battles and the fear that mourners would be hit by stray bullets.

She explained that after the army took control of large parts of the areas in the recent period, a number of those returning to their homes were surprised that they had turned into cemeteries and bodies whose owners they did not know were buried there, and it was likely that they belonged to soldiers from the Rapid Support Forces who had controlled the area for many months.

At a time when there are increasing fears of food and water contamination and many biological risks due to corpses, amputated human organs, blood, stray dogs and cats that fed on these corpses on the roads, the competent authorities in Sudan began implementing a package of measures to reduce these risks, and began transporting the bodies that had been buried. From homes and public squares to cemeteries.

Undertaker Abdeen Darma, who is responsible for burying the dead in the Ahmed Sharafi cemetery in the city of Omdurman, told Al Jazeera Net that conditions have become good and normal after the army imposed its control, and they are receiving about 13 bodies a day normally.

Darmah revealed that the bodies that had been buried in public squares and squares during the escalation of confrontations and battles and the control of the Rapid Support Forces had begun to be transported to the graves of Ahmed Sharafi and a number of other graves, after the expansion of security after the Sudanese army was able to advance, liberate and secure the areas where the graves are located.