Jamal’s Story
“I didn’t think I would survive this,” Jamal Abdallah Khamis, a 29-year-old ethnic Massalit man, told HRW.
As a child in West Darfur, Jamal grew up surrounded by violence, having survived the ethnic cleansing campaign perpetrated by Sudanese government forces and their allied militias, known as the “Janjaweed,” in the early 2000s.
When the fighting broke out again in April 2023, Jamal and his colleagues started to document the violence. But quickly the violence became too extreme, and Jamal was forced to flee for his life.
We spoke to Jamal for an extensive interview about how violence in Sudan has plagued his life and how these memories and experiences shape his future. “I felt that my duty is to spend my whole life defending and fighting for human rights.”
What He Saw
In late April, Jamal documented abuses when the RSF clashed with a Sudanese military convoy travelling through El Geneina. Then the RSF and its allied groups attacked majority Massalit neighborhoods, clashing with predominantly Massalit armed groups defending their communities.
The violence culminated in a large-scale massacre on June 15, when the RSF and its allies opened fire on a kilometers-long convoy of civilians desperately trying to flee, escorted by Massalit fighters. The RSF and militias pursued, rounded up, and shot men, women, and children who ran through the streets or tried to swim across the fast-flowing Kajja river. Many drowned.
The conflict between warring parties has caused widespread deaths and displacement, forced many to flee to neighboring countries, and brought millions around the country to the brink of famine.
All governments and international institutions need to mobilize now to protect civilians from further carnage.
For Jamal and countless others, it’s an urgent request: justice and peace for West Darfur and all of Sudan.
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