THE BUTCHER OF AL-FASHIR RETURNS
"Today, I’ve killed over 2,000... and then I lost count."
This is the horrifying reality of Issa Abu Lulu, a field executioner for the UAE-backed Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia.
Dubbed the "Butcher of Al-Fashir," Abu Lulu rose to notoriety by filming his own sadistic war crimes during the RSF’s g*nocidal siege of one of last remaining safe havens for indigenous people in the Darfur region of western Sudan.
From executing civilians based on their non-Arab ethnicity to a UN-documented account of shooting a pregnant woman in the stomach seven times after she revealed she was seven months pregnant, his brutality is staggering.
Yet, instead of facing justice, Abu Lulu is back on the battlefield.
When his viral videos caused public embarrassment to the RSF's PR machine, the militia staged a fake arrest.
A former RSF field commander named Al-Savana exposed the stunt: "They brought him, took pictures and he left."
Indeed, Abu Lulu belongs to the same clan as the Dagalo family that rules the RSF. According to Reuters, his immediate release was personally ordered by RSF deputy-commander Abdulrahim Hamdan Dagalo.
The Butcher of Al-Fashir was subsequently sent back to the front lines under only one condition: do not film. The RSF leadership is said to need Abu Lulu's bloodlust, stating he is "good for troop morale."
Emirati social media users openly use Abu Lulu’s name to taunt traumatised Sudanese people. Nonetheless, it must not be forgotten that UAE funding keeps the RSF's g*nocidal machine running.
The US recently sanctioned Abu Lulu, but what use are these sanctions while the state funding his brutality goes completely unpunished?
Through their calculated silence, the Western governments who constantly lecture the Global South on human rights continue to prioritise economic partnerships over African lives, directly enabling the atrocities of the Butcher of Al-Fashir.