Sudanese paramilitaries and rebels abducted 21 children in South Kordofan state last week with the intention of recruiting them as fighters, two witnesses and a medical network told Middle East Eye.
The boys, all aged 14 or 15, were among 150 men and youths seized by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and Abdelaziz al-Hilu’s faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement – North (SPLM-N) when they overran al-Zallataya gold mine and the surrounding area on 24 November.
According to the Sudan Doctors Network, a group that has been supporting civilians throughout the course of Sudan’s war, the raid began shortly after the RSF announced it was beginning a unilateral three-month “humanitarian” ceasefire.
One witness, a medic in his 40s, told MEE that fighters raiding neighbouring areas, including the village of Tebsa, may have detained as many as 700 others at the same time.
A second witness, an activist in her 30s, said there was no fighting nearby when the fighters suddenly stormed the area.
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“The situation was completely normal, everyone was going to work,” she said. “Some were already in their workplaces, and others were in their homes.”
Scores of young men were working in the gold mine when they were detained. The fighters also went from house to house rounding up others.
“The abductions were carried out in a humiliating manner. Some families later contacted their sons, who told them they were being held in a closed recruitment area with no possibility of escape,” the activist said.
Before the raid, the area had been held by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), which has been at war with the RSF since April 2023.
According to the witnesses, most SAF soldiers previously in the area had been redeployed. Four people were wounded during the raid on al-Zallataya, the Sudan Doctors Network said.
Middle East Eye has asked SAF and Tasis, the political arm of the RSF, for comment.
Escalation in South Kordofan
In recent days, fighting has escalated in South Kordofan, a strategically important state centred on the Nuba Mountains in southern Sudan.
On Saturday, the SPLM-N said a SAF drone strike on the Kumo area of the mountains killed 45 civilians, mostly schoolchildren.
The Sudanese military said it seized several strategic villages in South Kordofan over the weekend that had long been held by the SPLM-N.
Since splitting from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement rebel group after the independence of South Sudan in 2011, the SPLM-N has been divided into three factions.
Hilu’s faction is based in the Nuba Mountains and has grown closer to the RSF since Sudan’s war broke out over plans to fold the paramilitaries into the regular Sudanese army.
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Though at first their alliance appeared to be tacit, Hilu is now part of the RSF’s parallel government and part of the 15-member presidential council of Tasis.
MEE’s sources in South Kordofan said they could tell the fighters abducting people in al-Zallataya were members of the RSF and SPLM-N because of their uniforms.
They also said that some local youths who were known to have joined the factions were among the raiders.
In October 2023, the UN reported that the RSF was recruiting vulnerable children, particularly those who are poor or unaccompanied.
A video circulating online in October appeared to show a child soldier shooting dead an unarmed man outside el-Fasher when the RSF seized the North Darfur city, committing mass atrocities as it did so.
Save the Children said in April that an average of one child every 10 seconds has been forced to flee their homes since the war broke out.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and 13 million more displaced by the conflict.
