Missing persons from Sinja, Sudan

5 July 2024

Samia lost contact with her entire family after the Rapid Support Forces’ invasion of Sinja, the capital of Sennar State in southern Sudan. She now hopes to hear from someone who will tell her about her family, now missing for nearly a week, after they fled the city. 

Samia, who lives in Kassala, told Ayin that she lives in a state of anxiety that has deprived her of sleep for the past few days. She is afraid for the fate of her family, including the head of the family, Ismail Al-Tahir, and a number of his sons, daughters, and grandchildren, who number five. She confirmed that they left Sinja immediately after the outbreak of armed clashes and planned to travel to Damazin and then Gedaref, but lost contact with them. 

On 29 June, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took over Sinja, the capital city of Sennar, in the ongoing battle for economic and political dominance between the RSF and the national army. RSF’s state field commander Abdel-Rahman al-Bishi and Al-Jazeera State sector commander Abu Aqlah Keikel led the assault and captured the army headquarters of the 17th Infantry Division, the city’s main military base, Sudan War Monitor reported. The attack happened after SAF had dispatched some of its reserves north from Sinja towards Sennar, leaving the city vulnerable.

The attack forced over 55,400 people to flee Sinja, roughly one-fifth of the city’s population, contributing to the 136,000 conflict-displaced from Sennar State. Many, like Samia, fled south towards Damazin, a city already hosting thousands of people displaced from the capital Khartoum and other areas. 

Samia’s case is, unfortunately, not an isolated one. Many families from Sinja have lost contact with family members due to the sudden fighting in the city. Most of the displaced citizens were forced to flee via Dinder Bridge towards the Blue Nile region on foot after RSF targeted people’s cars.

Communications outage

The situation worsened with a near-total outage of telecommunications and internet services in Sennar State, in addition to power outages and the depletion of mobile phone batteries, which made communication difficult, local residents told Ayin.

Activists launched the “Call for a Missing Person from Sinja” campaign and created a platform on the social media platform “Facebook” to help people find lost individuals. Radhi Atta Al-Mannan asked on one of the social media platforms who could help him find his family of five, including children –all lost as they attempted to escape fighitng in Sinja. 

Among the missing in Sinja is Rashid Kamal Awad, a former member of the June 30 Dismantling Committee, set up to tackle corruption in Sennar State during the transitional period. Military intelligence detained Kamal two months earlier in Sinja before releasing him. Rashid and his family of seven left Sinja, and have not been found to this day. Investigative journalist, Al-Taj Osman, has also gone missing. His family announced his disappearance since the first day of the outbreak of fighting in the capital of Sennar State, and they have not found any information about him until now.

Harsh displacement

Singa residents underwent a difficult displacement journey on foot, and were stranded on a rough road linking the city of Dinder and Gedaref. Those who managed to make it to Gedaref have reached the city in tatters with severe hunger and thirst, according to local volunteers who are supporting the war affected. 

Adam Abdullah was very worried about his father, who had been missing since the war broke out in Sinja, but they were able to contact him today, Thursday, bringing joy to his family.

“I heard my father’s voice today after days of worry and tension,” Abdullah told Ayin. “He told me over the phone that he left Sinja immediately after the clashes began. After arriving in Dinder, fighting broke out there, so they were forced to leave towards Gadaref on foot for three days. They reached a village after walking more than 70 km. They are fine now, but they are suffering from severe exhaustion.”

He added, “I was happy to hear my father’s voice and that he was fine, but I am still worried about many of my acquaintances and relatives who are still missing on the road of displacement from the city of Sinja to Gedaref.”

“Sleeper cells”

The army and military intelligence have started targeting local civilians, accusing them of being “sleeper cells” with the RSF, after the latter’s string of victories in Sennar State, local residents told Ayin. On 30 June, authorities in Damazin, Blue Nile State, rounded up nine people, mostly young volunteers who support the war affected through the emergency rooms. According to the Sudan War Monitor, the army and allied militias also arrested others in Sennar City following the RSF’s capture of Sinja.

The fighting in Sinja and Sennar State will invariably affect much-needed food supplies for the entire nation since Sennar State, like Al-Jazeera State before it, was a breadbasket for Sudan.