SAF military courts handed down 51 death sentences in July alone against people accused of aiding the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to judiciary figures reviewed by Sudan Tribune. The rulings come amid reports that the RSF has carried out hundreds of summary executions across several states since the civil war erupted last year.
Spike in capital convictions
Most of July’s verdicts were delivered in SAF-held areas:
| State / City | Death sentences |
|---|---|
| Gezira | 23 |
| Khartoum (Omdurman 10, Bahri 3) | 13 |
| North Kordofan (El-Obeid) | 5 |
| River Nile (Atbara 2, Shendi 1) | 3 |
| Sennar | 2 |
| Northern (Merowe) | 1 |
| Red Sea (Port Sudan) | 2 |
| Gedaref | 1 |
The largest mass judgement — ten defendants at once — was read out on 13 July. Charges ranged from residing in RSF-controlled zones to posting pro-RSF videos or comments on social media.
Two condemned men told Sudan Tribune via an intermediary that security agents seized them in Gezira state after inspecting their phones. They insist the cases are politically driven, saying the war is “a return of the old National Congress regime,” not a defence of the 2019 revolution.
Legal backlash
Khartoum-based lawyer Hatem al-Sanhouri called the recent court rulings “a ready-made recipe for settling political scores,” noting that Sudan’s 1991 criminal code contains no article titled “collaboration.” He argued that ad-hoc security committees in SAF areas are bypassing due process by scouring phones for RSF-related content and forwarding suspects to trial.
Al-Sanhouri warned that both the SAF-side prosecutions and RSF summary killings threaten to entrench a climate of fear: “These cases weaponise the law to silence war critics and opponents of political Islam’s comeback.”
The war between General al-Burhan’s forces (SAF) and the RSF broke out in April 2024, fracturing the country and plunging it into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Each side denies committing atrocities, while human-rights groups say both are systematically executing detainees and civilians perceived as loyal to the other camp.
