Khamis Arabab

Background and Work

Khamis Arabab was a lawyer and member of the Darfur Bar Association based in El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state. For at least two years prior to his death, he focused his legal practice on defending victims of attacks on camps for internally displaced persons in and around El Geneina. He also provided legal aid to victims of human rights violations across the wider Darfur region, working in a context marked by recurrent violence, impunity, and the targeting of displaced communities.

West Darfur had seen waves of displacement and militia attacks in the years leading up to 2023. Camps for IDPs around El Geneina were repeatedly targeted, and legal representation for survivors was scarce. Khamis took on cases that exposed patterns of violence and sought accountability in a context where such work carried mounting risk.

Threats and the Escalation of Violence

In May 2023, the Darfur Bar Association issued an announcement stating that Khamis Arabab and his colleague Mohammed Ahmed Kudia had received death threats from militia members. The threats were linked to their work on cases concerning attacks on IDP camps in El Geneina. Both men were publicly identified as targets. Both continued their work.

On 15 April 2023, armed conflict erupted in Khartoum between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group that had grown out of the Janjaweed militias. The conflict spread quickly to Darfur, where RSF units and allied militias escalated attacks on civilian populations, particularly in West Darfur. El Geneina became a focal point of violence, with targeted killings, looting, and arson reported throughout May and June.

The Killing

On 30 May 2023, members of the Rapid Support Forces attacked Khamis Arabab's house in El Geneina. He was killed in the assault. The attack came two days after the killing of Mohammed Ahmed Kudia, whose house was also burned down and his property looted by RSF members on 28 May 2023.

Twelve days later, on 11 June 2023, Khidir Sulieman Abdelmageed, head of the human rights organisation Afkar and a colleague of Khamis in the human rights community, was killed on the road in El Geneina while attempting to leave his house after receiving death threats. All three men were human rights defenders and lawyers working in the same city. All three were killed within a two-and-a-half-week period.

Context and Pattern

The killings of Khamis Arabab, Mohammed Ahmed Kudia, and Khidir Sulieman Abdelmageed took place against the backdrop of widespread violence in West Darfur in May and June 2023. Human rights defenders, lawyers, and activists documenting abuses or providing legal representation to victims found themselves directly targeted. The attacks on their homes, the death threats, and the manner of their killings suggest a pattern of reprisal for their work.

Khamis Arabab had witnessed the outbreak of violence in West Darfur and had worked to document and litigate the abuses committed against displaced communities. His killing, alongside those of his colleagues, reflects the collapse of protection for human rights defenders in the region during the 2023 conflict. No investigation into his death has been announced. No one has been held accountable.