Gisma: The story of brutal death of woman in the wilderness of Darfur
Port Sudan, Sudan (PANA) - This time the death was not caused by hanging or pulling the victim chained to a 4X4 truck or by a gunshot or whipping or hacking by tomahawk axe or slaughtering by knife or gang-raping.
This time the young woman's hands were tied behind her back and fixed to the branch of a tree away from the trunk left to die through sheer pain, thirst and hunger.
A video footage of the body of the young lady undulating while a man dressed in a fatigue associated with RSF, interchanged in the shot, grim-faced while the tied feet kicked in the air under the huge tree.
There was nobody, no truck or housing around; the western Sudan’s semi-savanna wilderness extended as far as the eye could see.
The footage went viral, drawing condemnation and fiery comments from almost every social media, WhatApp groups, tik-tok, Facebook, telegram and name it.
But on the third day following the viral and gruesome video, Thursday, information started pouring about the death. The victim was: Gisma Ali Omar, a traditional farmer, an internally displaced woman from Zamzam camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) currently under the control of the RSF.
But a statement by the RSF has categorically denied any wrongdoing or link with the crime. It argued the video was but “cheap propaganda” by pro-Islamic media stooges.
“The whole scene is a mere premature media fabrication that seeks to debase the picture of our forces and to cement false accusations of authoring torture crimes. This is not part of our moral conduct or our ethics,” the RSF said.
“They killed her because she resisted being raped by a leading RSF official, she rejected him. So they killed her this way tying her to the tree until her death,” countered Sheikh Adam Hamid Jaranabi in a video commenting on the episode.
“We don’t consider this an insult to us… No it rather shows the dignity of the Sudanese woman, of the Sudanese girls. We pray to Allah to accept her soul,” he said in an emotionally charged statement.
The death of Gisma was not the first of its kind nor will it be the last. As early as January 2025, Antony Blinken, then US Secretary of State, said both the Sudanese army and the RSF committed war crimes. But he specifically said the RSF committed genocide, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.
The state department then pointed out that on April 15, 2023, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launched a conflict of unmitigated brutality that has resulted in the world’s largest humanitarian catastrophe, leaving 638,000 Sudanese experiencing the worst famine in Sudan’s recent history, over 30 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, and tens of thousands dead.
“In December 2023, I concluded that members of the SAF and the RSF had committed war crimes. I also determined that members of the RSF and allied Arab militias had committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing,” Mr. Blinken, said in a statement on 7 January 2025.
Blinken argued that the RSF and RSF-aligned militias had continued to direct attacks against civilians. The RSF and allied militias have systematically murdered men and boys—even infants—on an ethnic basis, and deliberately targeted women and girls from certain ethnic groups for rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence.
“Those same militias have targeted fleeing civilians, murdering innocent people escaping conflict, and prevented remaining civilians from accessing lifesaving supplies. Based on this information, I have now concluded that members of the RSF and allied militias have committed genocide in Sudan.“
Early this month a group of UN fact finding mission repeated similar accusations, saying both parties are culpable of war, but it devoted special chapters for the RSF which it accused of systematic rape of women and ethnic cleansing.
Last Monday the UN commissioner for Human Rights, told the world that although both the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces in Sudan continued to show an utter disregard for international humanitarian and human rights law and that thousands of civilians had been killed this year, and hostilities were intensifying in Darfur and Kordofan. Both sides target health facilities, markets, and water plants.
Still, he stressed that after more than a year under RSF siege, the situation in Al Fashir was catastrophic. People are struggling to find food, water and medical supplies under constant bombardment.
“Sexual violence is widespread, predominantly against displaced women and girls. There are no safe routes out of the city, and I have repeatedly raised the risk of further atrocities and ethnically motivated violence.” United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in his opening remarks on Monday, giving the wider and general story about the situation in Darfur and the Sudan.
It was clear, as put by Turk, this story of Gisma would be repeated many times, unless an urgent and “decisive action is taken to prevent further atrocity crimes. “
-0-PANA MO/RA 11Sept2025
