Sudan Police Recover 11 Bodies from Well in Khartoum

# Sudan police recover 11 bodies from well in Khartoum

Sudanese authorities have recovered the bodies of 11 people, including women and children, from a well in Khartoum, according to police. The discovery adds another grim chapter to a war that has already left large parts of Sudan shattered and exposed to atrocity accusations.

Police said the bodies were found in the Fayhaa neighbourhood of the capital and were taken out on Saturday after residents reported finding a dead body in the well. Col. Abdul-Rahanan Mohamed Hassan, who led the civil defence field team in Khartoum, said search crews were still working at the site. He described the bodies as belonging to men, women, adults and children.

Authorities say the victims were killed by the Rapid Support Forces and then thrown into the well while the paramilitary force controlled the area. The military recaptured the area earlier this month as it pushed forward in Khartoum and Omdurman. The recovery therefore follows a shift in control rather than a random discovery, which makes the site part of the war’s longer forensic aftermath.

Residents in nearby districts described a wider pattern of abuse. Afraa al-Hajj Omar said RSF fighters had killed people in the area and left bodies in the streets, while others were thrown into the well. Those accounts fit the broader picture that has emerged from Sudan’s war: once front lines move, the evidence of violence is often found in roads, homes and hidden places rather than on any formal battlefield.

The war began in April 2023 after tensions between the Sudanese military and the Rapid Support Forces exploded into open conflict. Since then at least 20,000 people have been killed, though the real toll is thought to be much higher. More than 14 million people have fled their homes, and parts of the country have been pushed into famine.

The fighting has devastated Khartoum and other cities. International rights groups and the United Nations have described atrocities that include mass rape and ethnically motivated killings, particularly in Darfur, where abuses have been characterised as war crimes and crimes against humanity. The discovery in Khartoum sits within that same pattern of lawlessness and civilian suffering.

The new recovery is important not only because of the number of dead but because it shows how the war’s violence continues to surface after territory changes hands. Even when combat shifts elsewhere, the city retains its dead. Each recovery becomes evidence of what happened while armed groups controlled the neighbourhood.

For Sudanese families, that means the war is not over when troops advance. It is over only when the missing are found, identified and buried. In this case, 11 more bodies have been added to a conflict already defined by mass loss and a devastating lack of safety for civilians.