A Homage to Strength: What We Can Learn from the Splendour of Accra's Cultural Festival.
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- By John Ball
- 09 Jun 2026
Warning: This Account Contains Disturbing Details of Killings.
Combatants chuckle as they travel on the rear of a pick-up truck, racing past a row of multiple dead bodies and moving towards the setting African evening sky.
"See such work. See this ethnic cleansing," a fighter exclaims.
He beams as he points the recording device on himself and his fellow fighters, their paramilitary insignia visible: "The victims will all be killed this way."
These individuals are celebrating a massacre that humanitarian officials suspect resulted in the deaths of over two thousand civilians in the Sudanese urban center of al-Fashir during October.
Following their control of the city under encirclement for nearly two years, from the summer the militia moved to consolidate its position and blockade the surviving civilian population.
Orbital photography show that fighters commenced to build a massive berm - a elevated sand barrier - surrounding the boundaries of al-Fashir, sealing off entry points and blocking relief supplies.
As the siege worsened, 78 people were murdered in an militia strike on a religious building on 19 September, while the United Nations said dozens further were murdered in unmanned aircraft and cannon bombardments on a refugee settlement in October.
At dawn on late October the militia conquered the remaining government strongholds and took control of the central headquarters in the urban area, the main facility of the Army Division, as the government forces withdrew.
One of the most graphic recordings to surface and examined depicted the aftermath of a atrocity at a educational facility on the west of the community, where scores corpses were observed strewn across the ground.
An older man wearing a white tunic sat isolated amongst the corpses. The individual looked to look as a fighter equipped with a firearm walked down the staircase facing the victim. Raising his weapon, the gunman released a solitary round at the man, who collapsed to the ground still.
"Why is this person even alive," a militiaman shouted. "Shoot this person."
Orbital photography taken on 26 October appeared to verify that killings were furthermore performed on the streets of the city, based on a analysis issued by the university analysis team.
One witness who communicated stated he had witnessed "numerous of our family members getting massacred - they were collected in one place and all eliminated."
In the days that followed the massacre, militia leader admitted that his forces had perpetrated "violations" and said the incidents would be examined.
Included among apprehended was after a analysis recording his executions. Carefully choreographed and produced recording shared on the paramilitary's official social media channel depict the individual being escorted into a prison room at a prison on the perimeter of al-Fashir.
Meanwhile, the paramilitary force and affiliated social media accounts started trying to alter the account.
Posts presenting its combatants distributing supplies to residents were shared by some accounts, while the paramilitary's media office published multiple videos purporting to show the compassionate management of army prisoners of war.
In spite of the online campaign being used by the militia, their actions in the city have generated international anger.
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