As Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces overran the Darfuri capital El-Faher with gory tales of atrocities meted out on fleeing civilians after an 18-month siege, one name has popped up repeatedly.
RSF Brigadier General al-Fateh Abdullah Idris known by his sobriquet Abu Lulu has been notoriously linked to the massacre of October 27, 2025 as the paramilitary unit overcame remnants of the Sudanese National Army who were resisting a siege that had lasted since the beginning of the civil war in.
El Fasher was home to the SNA’s 6th infantry division which has been finally overwhelmed by wave after wave of RSF onslaught.
Since then graphic video images have emerged of the RSF commander shooting unarmed civilians at point blank range and killing them.
Although the RSF has denied links with Abu Lulu and arested him with a promise to prosecute hom over the crimes, the killings ostensibly by him have been well documented thanks to videos of the commander lining up groups of men and summarily executing them even after some of the men under his command had pleaded with him not to take the lives of their victims.
A mainly Arab militia consisting of mercenaries from Chad, Libya, South Sudan and faraway Colombia, the RSF had emerged from the then regime-backed Janjaweed in Darfur which was blamed for atrocities on civilians between 2003 and 2005.
As a result of the atrocities in recent week, over 60, 000 people have fled El Fasher where RSF fighters have reportedly been involved in the rape of women and girls, extrajudicial executions of non-combatants, burning people alive, torturing those suspected of collaborating with the SNA and mutilating corpses. Added to this is an untold humantarian crisis which major relief agencies like the Doctors Without Border warned is taking on catastrophy proportions.
The killing of at least 460 to 500 doctors, patients and companions of the patients at the Saudi maternity hospital has been widely reported quoting the World Health Organization, which accused the RSF of apparently kidnapping four doctors, a pharmacist and a nurse, demanding over $150,000 as ransom before they could be released.
According to the Sudan Doctors Union, some 1,200 civilians were killed in other medical facilities in the region. One man who has been allegedly at the centre of most of these violations is Abu Lulu.
Other than recent videos on social media of Abu Lulu donning full uniform of the RSF adorned with the paramilitary unit’s badge, nothing is seriously known about the ‘bloodthirsty commander’ being held responsible for much of the violations which the UN says constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Prior to the conflict, little was known of Abu Lulu other than being one of the RSF commanders entrusted with directing the siege of El Fasher against the last stronghold of the Sudanese army which is loyal to junta leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
Witnesses say one man was executed by Abu Lulu for belonging to a specific tribe regarded as unsupportive to the RSF while others were mowed down for allegedly resisting their forced conscription into the paramilitary group. He is even seen on video boasting of killing over 2000 people, mostly civilians.
”Despite denials, Abu Lulu is the real face of the RSF” a local commentator told APA on condition of anonymity.
‘According to the source, the commander who is in his early 40s is being rumoured to be a close relative of RSF leader Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo or Hemati, whose personal struggle for political power with al-Burhan broadened into a full scale civil war in April 2023.
”The reason for his atrocities stems from ethnically motivated hatred under the guise of fighting the army” the anonymous analyst claimed.
‘Other observers who also wish to remain anonymous, say the number of people killed in El Fasher in five days before its fall to RSF hands is almost identical to the casualties of the civil war before this point.
WN/as/APA