By Reade Levinson, Mahamat Ramadane and Giulia Paravicini
May 18 (Reuters) – A Sudanese paramilitary commander who was arrested late last year following global outrage over videos of him executing unarmed people in al-Fashir has been released from prison and returned to active duty on the battlefield, nine sources told Reuters.
Two of the sources – a Sudanese intelligence official and a commander with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces – said they personally saw RSF Brigadier General al-Fateh Abdullah Idris, known as Abu Lulu, on the battlefield in Kordofan in March. RSF officers had pleaded for Abu Lulu to be returned to the field to boost the morale of forces engulfed in heavy fighting there, a Chadian military officer told Reuters.
In total, Reuters spoke with 13 sources who said they knew of Abu Lulu’s release. They include three RSF commanders, an RSF officer, a relative of Abu Lulu, a Chadian military officer close to RSF command and seven other sources with contacts in RSF leadership or access to intelligence on RSF field operations.
An RSF spokesman, in response to questions from Reuters, issued a statement on Monday denying the group had released Abu Lulu. A special court will try him and others accused of violations during the al-Fashir offensive, according to the statement from Ahmed Tugud Lisan, spokesman for the RSF-led Tasis government.
“The talk about Abu Lulu being released is untrue, malicious, and completely false,” the statement said. “Abu Lulu and the others accused of violations during the liberation of al-Fashir have been in detention since their arrest and have never left prison.”
Reuters was unable to reach Abu Lulu.
SANCTIONS CITE WAR CRIMES
The RSF imprisoned Abu Lulu in late October 2025, a few days after its bloody takeover of al-Fashir, a large city in North Darfur. Multiple videos had surfaced of him executing unarmed people during the offensive. His actions earned him the nickname “the butcher of al-Fashir,” a moniker noted by the U.N. Security Council when sanctioning him on February 24 for human rights abuses.
The three-year civil war between the Sudanese army and the RSF is a brutal power struggle to control the country and its financial resources. It has created what aid groups say is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. Earlier this year, an independent U.N. probe found that the mass killings in al-Fashir bear the hallmarks of genocide. A separate U.N. probe found more than 6,000 people were killed by RSF fighters from October 25 to 27.
Four videos verified by Reuters show Abu Lulu shooting at least 15 unarmed captives in al-Fashir on October 27, after the RSF seized the city. All were wearing civilian clothing. It is considered a war crime under international law to kill anyone, even a former fighter, who is unarmed and not posing a threat.
After international outcry by U.N. leaders, U.S. politicians and others, RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, publicly acknowledged violations by his fighters in al-Fashir and said an accountability committee would be set up to investigate any abuses. On October 30, the RSF released a video of Abu Lulu being driven to Shala prison, in southwestern al-Fashir. In the video, a handcuffed Abu Lulu is escorted from a vehicle flanked by armed men and placed behind bars. An unidentified RSF spokesperson standing in front of the prison says Abu Lulu “will be presented to a just trial in accordance with the law.”
In November, Al Jazeera published a story saying Abu Lulu had been released, citing unspecified online videos. But on December 2, the head of the RSF-appointed accountability committee told Reuters that it had Abu Lulu in custody and was investigating him and several other RSF soldiers in connection with violations committed in al-Fashir. Al Jazeera did not respond to questions from Reuters about its November report.
Four sources told Reuters Abu Lulu was released in December. Reuters was unable to confirm when he was freed.
The relative said that before Abu Lulu was authorized to return to duty in Kordofan, he appeared in November before a disciplinary board made up of six senior officers. The hearing was about videos he appeared in that damaged the RSF’s reputation. Reuters was unable to confirm the hearing took place or determine its outcome.
Abu Lulu is from the same clan as Hemedti, the RSF leader. Hemedti’s brother, Abdelrahim Dagalo, the deputy commander of the RSF, personally ordered Abu Lulu’s release from prison, according to three sources – an RSF commander and an RSF officer both close to RSF leadership and a researcher with contacts in the committee tasked with investigating Abu Lulu.
The RSF officer said that the disciplinary committee had not officially released Abu Lulu but that the deputy commander had ordered his release via radio message.
COMMAND RESPONSIBILITY
The videos of Abu Lulu are among nearly 300 videos posted online around the time of the offensive and analysed by Reuters and the Sudan Witness project at the Centre for Information Resilience.
Abu Lulu was the only commander Reuters identified in video shooting unarmed people. But the Reuters-Sudan Witness investigation also found that three other senior RSF commanders were in the same area when the mass killings took place.
One video verified by Reuters shows Gedo Hamdan Abu Nashuk, the highest ranking RSF commander for the region of North Darfur, walking alongside Abu Lulu on the morning of October 27. Reuters geolocated videos from this area and found that Nashuk was recorded within 40 metres of two other videos that showed Abu Lulu executing unarmed men. By measuring shadows in the three videos, Reuters found that the videos were filmed within the same two-hour window.
Under international law, these leaders may be held criminally liable for crimes committed by their fighters during the conflict, said Jehanne Henry, a human rights lawyer and Sudan director at The Reckoning Project, a U.S. non-profit that documents war crimes.
The RSF did not respond to questions about the specific actions of any commanders present during the al-Fashir offensive. On October 29, Hemedti said that any soldier or officer who committed a crime would be arrested and investigated, with the results publicized.
The RSF government has been delayed in trying those accused of violations, spokesman Lisan said, because it is “establishing state structures under difficult circumstances.”
“We are committed to achieving justice and holding all those who commit violations accountable,” Lisan said. “Any talk to the contrary is deliberate misinformation.”
WITNESS ACCOUNTS
Reuters spoke with six survivors in refugee camps in Chad who said they witnessed Abu Lulu killing civilians in al-Fashir before they fled in October 2025.
Manazil Mousa, 25, recognized Abu Lulu from videos shown to her by a Reuters reporter and said she met him on the road out of al-Fashir as she and her family were fleeing. There, she said, he took their phones and all of their belongings, beat them severely and shot and killed her brother, Mubarak.
“Abu Lulu is the one who abused us,” she said. “He was the one who killed Mubarak. He is the one who killed our families and killed our husbands.”
Madina Adam, 38, said Abu Lulu entered Al-Fashir University on October 27, where she was sheltering with other civilians, and started to kill women and children.
She described one moment when Abu Lulu asked a pregnant woman how many months along she was, and when she responded “seven months,” he shot her seven times in her stomach with his gun. The same scene was described by two witnesses in a U.N. report published in February.
Adam said Abu Lulu then asked a group of 10 children to sit on the ground and forced them to chant RSF slogans while he filmed. The children asked not to be killed, she said, but he shot all 10 of them.
SECRECY ORDERED
An RSF commander said leadership ordered other officers to keep quiet about Abu Lulu’s return to combat. A different RSF commander and the relative said Abu Lulu was released on the condition that he not film or be filmed on the battlefield. Reuters has not found any images of him in action since his release.
“He has been free for about three or four months and is on the battlefield with his troops,” said one RSF commander, who declined to be named.
Abu Lulu’s relative said the RSF needed the commander’s services because its forces are struggling. After cementing control of al-Fashir, the RSF shifted its offensive eastward into the Kordofan region, between its territory and army-held areas. It has faced intense fighting there.
“He is very popular with the troops and that’s good for their morale,” the relative said.
In several videos verified by Reuters and Sudan Witness, other RSF fighters praise Abu Lulu and his killings. In one, filmed and posted online on November 1, 2025, by Salah Abdeen Mohamed Azala, an RSF fighter, Azala says many fighters are ready to take Abu Lulu’s place.
“If Abu Lulu disappeared, or you arrested him or tried him, we are all 1,000 Abu Lulus,” he says, speaking to the camera. “I too am Abu Lulu.”
(Additional reporting by Nafisa Eltahir, Khalid Abdelaziz and Stephanie Burnett. Video verification by Milan Pavicic, Monica Naime, Marine Delrue, Catherine Cartier, Pola Grzanka, and Reade Levinson. Edited by Sarah Cahlan and Janet Roberts)
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