The Hidden Genocide: Arab Muslims Targeting Black Africans in Sudan

Image: Jihad Watch

While global attention often fixates on conflicts in Gaza, the true genocide unfolding today is taking place far from the headlines—in Sudan. Two decades ago, the Darfur region became the stage for a horrifying campaign of ethnic violence. Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed, swept through the region, killing black African farmers indiscriminately, torching their homes, seizing livestock, and destroying crops that sustained entire communities. What was once a vibrant agrarian region was reduced to fear, rubble, and grief.

For a time, the violence subsided, but it has returned with a new force. The Janjaweed have reemerged under the banner of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), targeting black Africans once more across western Sudan. Recently, the RSF captured El-Fasher (Al-Fashir), the last major city in Darfur still held by Sudanese government forces. Their methods have been brutal and systematic: going house to house, slaughtering families, and sparing neither the vulnerable nor the sick. At the city’s only operational hospital, the RSF reportedly killed 460 patients and medical personnel, leaving the facility a scene of unimaginable horror.

Despite the scale of these atrocities, international media coverage often fails to acknowledge the racial dimension of the conflict. The RSF is composed predominantly of Arabs, and their victims are black Africans—a fact that, if highlighted, might complicate narratives about the Arab world and its relations, particularly concerning the Arab-Israeli conflict. The truth is uncomfortable, and it is largely ignored.

Eyewitness accounts provide chilling details of the atrocities. Alkheir Ismail, who narrowly escaped death, recounted how RSF fighters on camels rounded up hundreds of men near al-Fashir, shouting racial slurs before shooting them. He was spared only because a captor recognized him from school. Others have testified that men were separated from women; men were executed on the spot or disappeared into unknown locations, while women and girls were subjected to sexual enslavement. These acts are not isolated incidents—they are part of a calculated campaign of ethnic cleansing.

The United Nations has acknowledged that hundreds of civilians and unarmed fighters may have been executed in al-Fashir, a scale of killing that constitutes war crimes. Yet, within days of the initial reports, the number of victims reported by Western sources rose from hundreds to tens of thousands. The international response has been muted, and no significant pressure has been applied to the RSF’s principal backer, the United Arab Emirates, which has been supplying the paramilitary group with weapons and funding for over two and a half years.

Meanwhile, RSF leadership continues to issue deceptive statements, claiming to investigate violations and provide aid. In reality, no RSF fighter has been held accountable for the massacres, and videos of food and medical aid distributions are widely suspected to be staged propaganda. The atrocities continue unchecked, even as international bodies like the UN Security Council convene emergency meetings, and discussions arise about deploying peacekeepers. What remains consistently underreported is the racialized nature of the violence: Arabs are killing black Africans in an orchestrated campaign of terror.

It is vital to state this truth clearly and repeatedly: the RSF consists of Arab combatants, and their victims are black Africans. This is not a simple conflict or civil war—it is genocide. The world must recognize it as such, loudly and unequivocally, in the United Nations, in the U.S. Congress, in media outlets, and across social media. The genocide in Sudan is real, ongoing, and horrifying, and it demands urgent attention far beyond fleeting headlines.

(This Article was originally published by Jihad Watch)