"shayatin al-ard" — شياطين الأرض — devils of the earth

the rsf’s (and by extension, the uae & us) war on sudan’s soul

In El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, the Rapid Support Forces have turned siege into ritual. Months of encirclement, starvation, and airstrikes have killed thousands. Satellite images from Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab show rows of graves on the outskirts of the city. The UN has documented summary executions, looting, and the deliberate bombing of hospitals and shelters.

Satellite imagery from Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab shows evidence of mass killings in El Fasher, North Darfur. The highlighted areas reveal bodies consistent with human size, red ground discoloration, and possible bloodstains. Which are indicators of summary executions carried out during RSF operations in the city.

But on RSF social media channels, there is no remorse. Fighters record themselves laughing beside the dead, posing in looted homes, and praising commanders with names that sound Quranic in their defiance.

Abu Jahl, Ya’juj (Gog), Abu Lu’lu.

These are not pseudonyms of concealment, they are declarations of intent. Each name is a reference to figures condemned in Islam. Abu Jahl, the Meccan merchant who mocked the Prophet; Ya’juj, the destroyer of worlds; Abu Lu’lu, the assassin who murdered a caliph. The men who adopt these names know exactly what they mean. They take them not to hide but to announce what they are, people who no longer fear judgment. When men begin naming themselves after the cursed, it is rebellion against morality itself.

A photo circulating on RSF-linked social media channels showing Mohamed Tahir, known as “Abu Jahl,” a Rapid Support Forces commander reportedly killed in a drone strike in Kordofan. His image has been shared by supporters depicting him as a martyr, despite his alleged involvement in atrocities.

Mohamed Tahir, the RSF commander known as Abu Jahl, was killed in a drone strike in Kordofan back in August. On RSF pages, he is glorified as a martyr. In Islamic tradition, Abu Jahl represents the height of arrogance, the man who saw truth and rejected it. As a senior RSF commander, Tahir was part of a hierarchy responsible for systematic violence and terror across Sudan’s war zones.

Another RSF figure goes by Gog (Ya’juj), a name drawn from the Qur’anic/Biblical story of Gog and Magog, who are beings unleashed to consume and destroy. In a verified video shared by doamuslims on X, he calls himself Gog and declares that rape, killing, and looting are the RSF’s right in Sudan. His fighters have been filmed celebrating destruction in Darfur, posting their own footage online as if violence were a badge of belonging. Their goal is not victory but annihilation, turning cruelty itself into identity.

A screenshot from a verified X post showing an RSF commander calling himself “Gog (Ya’juj)” declaring that rape, killing, and looting are the group’s “right” in Sudan.

Then there is Abu Lu’lu (Al‑Fateh Abdallah Idris), a commander whose name appears in verified reports and videos. As The New Humanitarian documented, several videos show him travelling from site to site, executing people without mercy. Wearing a white scarf, he poses among corpses, grinning and raising his gun while boasting about his kills. In one clip he tells a wounded man, “I will not give you any mercy,” before shooting him dead. In another, he praises Hemedti, saying, “Hemedti is the best,” moments before killing a line of captives. On social media, he mixes scripture with mockery, wearing gold and calling himself chosen.

Sickening moment captured on video shows TikTok-loving RSF commander known as “Abu Lu’lu”, laughing as he kills captives one by one during the massacre of thousands in El Fasher. His videos, flaunted online, have become emblematic of the RSF’s culture of filmed brutality and impunity.

After massive outrage online and growing pressure on the UAE (the RSF’s main sponsor), the RSF announced his arrest. But the move appeared more like a PR stunt than accountability, a brief performance to quiet the anger before returning to business as usual.

Abu Lu’lu is shown here during his reported arrest by the Rapid Support Forces. His detention, announced after massive public outrage over execution videos, seems more to be like a staged public relations stunt. An attempt to deflect international criticism rather than deliver justice.

The first Abu Lu’lu was remembered for corrupting justice with revenge; this one turns vengeance into theatre, his so‑called arrest a performance to appease outrage while the RSF carries on killing. He doesn’t hide his cruelty, he sells it, turning mass murder into content.

Together, these names form the RSF’s theology of power. They are the rejection of every sacred restraint. Their violence transcends politics, it reflects a deeper moral and spiritual decay. A deliberate defiance of the very foundations of human decency. They deliberately drone strike mosques and slaughter Muslims at point‑blank range. All the while, shouting God’s name, not out of ignorance but as a proclamation of defiance against the moral order they reject. This is not belief but domination, a theology of rebellion expressed through intimate and grotesque violence. A theology where cruelty itself becomes the act of worship.

Bodies of worshippers wrapped in blankets after an RSF drone strike hit a mosque in North Darfur. At least 75 people were killed during prayers, including children. The attack, one of several on places of worship, has been condemned by the UN as part of a broader campaign of terror against civilians in El Fasher.

Most RSF fighters come from Sudan’s margins. From tribes left poor by the state, raised in drought and displacement. They are predominantly Arabs (although not pure Arabs). However, not the sedentary/urban Nile Valley Arabs or city-dwelling Arabs from Khartoum or Omdurman. They come from Darfur and Kordofan, from Arab pastoral tribes, whose identity and status are socially and geographically distinct from Sudan’s central riverine (from along the Nile river) people.

Map of the Baggara Belt, home to Arabized pastoralist tribes stretching from the tip of Nigeria to Kordofan. Their identity is rooted in mobility, conflict, and survival in the Sahel, distinct from Sudan’s urban and Nile-based Arabs.

These communities have historically been marginalized and drawn into militias through promises of wealth and recognition. They descend directly from the the Janjaweed (translates to devils on horseback), the militias that once burned villages in Darfur, Kordofan and South Sudan for Khartoum’s wars. But even before that, they came from generations of warriors hardened by drought, conflict, and cattle raids. They were used again in the Darfur war, promised money and status in exchange for blood. Later, they were sent by rich Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE as mercenaries for wars in Yemen and Libya. Every massacre ignored by the world became proof that cruelty works. They learned that fear brings respect, and that pity is weakness. Now they kill to feel infinite.

The Baggara are Arabized pastoralist tribes of the Sahel. They are descendants of centuries of intermarriage between migrating Arabs and indigenous African peoples.

Inside the RSF, status is earned through terror. Mercy is mocked. Reputation is measured in brutality. Many sincerely believe their power is divine justice, that God elevated them from hunger to dominance as a reward. Their faith mirrors the nations that fund them. Victory as virtue, dominance as destiny. The RSF does not hide its crimes. It records them. Evil no longer wears a mask, it smiles for the camera. This is cruelty that knows itself, proud and self‑aware.

Behind every atrocity lies a system that enables it. Gold smuggled to Dubai, drones imported from abroad, and fuel supplied by allies who denounce war in public and finance it in private.

Dubai’s Gold Souk is the showroom of an empire built on violently stealing from others. The UAE exports billions in gold despite having no mines of its own. Much of it comes from Sudan, smuggled through RSF-controlled territory and cleaned in Dubai’s refineries. Through gold, banking, and land deals, the Emirati state has turned Sudan’s economy into a satellite of its own, a model of modern imperialism dressed up as investment.

Watch their footage long enough and you notice what’s missing, emotion. No rage, no fear, no triumph, just emptiness. They seem drained by history and driven only by vengeance. Into that emptiness flows the logic of profit and domination.

Abu Jahl, Ya’juj, and Abu Lu’lu are not exceptions; they are what a world without empathy produces. The devils on horseback never disappeared. They learned to fly drones and post on social media. Evil is no longer hiding, it is efficient, monetized, and proud of itself.

And it has names.

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Boycott the UAE.

Don’t go to Dubai.