Sudan paramilitary RSF attacks village in Gezira, kills at least 100, say local activists
The Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces attacked a village in Gezira State on Wednesday, killing at least 100 people, according to local activists.
Children sit together sharing a large bowl of food, as Sudanese families host internally displaced people coming from the central Sudanese state of Gezira to the eastern Sudanese city of Gedaref on June 3, 2024. Fighting in Sudan broke out in April last year 2023, between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The conflict has killed thousands and sparked a humanitarian disaster. The statement said 18 million people were acutely hungry, 3.6 million children were acutely malnourished and famine was closing in on millions of people. (Photo by Ebrahim HAMID / AFP)(AFP)
If confirmed, the attack would be the latest in a string of dozens of attacks by RSF soldiers on small villages across the farming state after it took control of the capital Wad Madani in December.
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A telecommunications blackout prevented Reuters immediately reaching medics or residents to verify the death toll.
“Wad Alnoura village … witnessed a genocide on Wednesday after the RSF attacked twice, killing up to 100 people,” the pro-democracy Wad Madani Resistance Committee said in a statement on social media late on Wednesday.
Later it put the number of dead in the hundreds, and said the Sudanese army had not heeded a request for help.
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The RSF began fighting the army in April 2023 after disputes over the integration of the two forces, and has since taken over the capital Khartoum and most of western Sudan. It is now seeking to advance into the centre, as United Nations agencies say the people of Sudan are at “imminent risk of famine”.
In a statement on Wednesday, the RSF said it had attacked army and allied militia bases around Wad Alnoura but did not acknowledge any civilian casualties.
But the Wad Madani Resistance Committee accused it of using heavy artillery against civilians, looting, and driving women and children to seek refuge in the nearby town of Managil.
It shared photos of dozens of bodies wrapped for burial in an open square among large crowds of men.
Read more: France condemns attack on Red Cross in Sudan
“The people of Wad Alnoura called on the army to rescue them, but they shamefully did not respond,” the committee said.
The army-aligned Transitional Sovereign Council condemned the attack.
“These are criminal acts that reflect the systematic behaviour of these militias in targeting civilians,” it said in a statement.