CNN has reported that the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and allied militias have carried out a campaign of ethnically targeted killings in Sudan’s Gezira (also known as Al Jazirah) state, including dumping bodies into canals and concealing mass graves.
CNN, working with Lighthouse Reports, documented a months-long SAF-led campaign against “Kanabi” farming communities (largely non‑Arab Black Sudanese) in Gezira state from late 2024 into 2025, under the cover of a “cleanup” operation after retaking Wad Madani from the RSF. The investigation describes systematic attacks on non‑Arab civilians in rural “kambos,” including mass killings, arson of villages, and efforts to hide evidence through mass graves and the disposal of bodies in irrigation canals.
The joint investigation collected and verified hundreds of videos, satellite imagery, and testimonies from survivors and SAF whistleblowers that showed bodies being dumped in water channels and buried in hurried mass graves. A community leader quoted in the report describes personally seeing SAF soldiers throw three bodies into a canal, then later travelling across Gezira to record multiple destroyed Kanabi settlements, including ones that had never been under RSF control.
Witnesses recount SAF soldiers entering homes in Gezira towns and villages, separating out men from non‑Arab regions such as Blue Nile and taking them away, after which families later learned they had been killed. Multiple survivors and whistleblowers say the operation’s purpose was to drive out or destroy African‑majority communities seen by SAF and allied Islamist networks as not belonging in Gezira, making the violence both ethnically motivated and systematic.
The investigation highlights the role of Islamist‑backed militias, including the Sudan Shield Forces, operating alongside SAF in these attacks on civilians. Human Rights Watch has separately documented that Sudan Shield fighters, aligned with SAF, deliberately targeted civilians in Gezira (for example in Tayba village), killing and looting in ways that amount to war crimes, reinforcing the pattern described in the CNN/Lighthouse reporting.
According to Lighthouse Reports, neither SAF nor Sudan’s General Intelligence Service responded to detailed questions about the findings, while Sudan Shield denied ethnically targeting civilians and claimed to follow international humanitarian law. High‑level sources interviewed for the investigation said the campaign orders came from senior SAF leadership and influential Islamists, suggesting command‑level responsibility for the killings and body disposal practices, including those involving canals.
Further reading: The Kanabi Killings – Lighthouse Reports
