Key points
- More than 120 people have been killed in raids in Sudan, with widespread violence and looting.
- The UN condemned the attacks, citing mass killings and sexual violence against women and girls.
- The conflict in Sudan has displaced millions of people, resulting in 24,000 deaths and an increase in atrocities from 2023.
Fighters from the notorious paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have rioted in central-eastern Sudan in a multi-day attack that killed more than 120 people in one town, a doctors’ group and the United Nations said.
It was the group’s last attack against the Sudanese army, after suffering a series of defeats, losing ground to the military in the area. The war, which has lasted for more than a year and a half, has devastated the African country, displacing millions of inhabitants and pushing it to the brink of full-blown famine.
RSF fighters rampaged through villages and towns on the eastern and northern sides of Gezira province between October 20 and 25, shooting at civilians and sexually assaulting women and girls, the UN said in a statement on Saturday, adding of having looted private and public properties, including open markets.
“These are heinous crimes,” Clementine Nkweta-Salami, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, said in a statement Saturday.
“Women, children and the most vulnerable people are bearing the brunt of a conflict that has already caused too many victims.”
He said the attacks resembled the horrors committed during the Darfur genocide in the early 2000s, including rape, sexual violence and mass killings.
The Sudanese Doctors’ Union said in a statement that at least 124 people were killed and 200 others injured in the town of Sariha, adding that the group had rounded up at least 150 more people. He called on the UN Security Council to pressure RSF to open “safe corridors” to allow humanitarian groups to reach people in affected villages.
“There is no way to help the injured or evacuate them for medical treatment,” the statement said.
Footage circulated online, some shared by RSF fighters themselves, showing members of the paramilitary group abusing detainees. One video showed a man wearing a military uniform grabbing an old man by the chin and dragging him around while other armed men chanted in the background.
The RSF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Coordination of Civil Democratic Forces, an alliance of pro-democracy parties and groups, also accused the RSF of storming villages, opening fire on civilians and rounding up and mistreating “a large number of residents”.
In a statement, the alliance held RSF “responsible for these massive violations” and demanded that the perpetrators be held accountable.
The attack on Gezira occurred as the military had successfully retaken areas controlled by the RSF.
In September, the army launched a massive operation in and around the capital Khartoum, seizing large areas from the RSF. Furthermore, earlier this month, it took control of Jebel Moya, a strategic mountainous area in Gezira province, as well as areas of Gezira and neighboring Sinnar province, driving out RSF forces.
In October, one of the RSF’s top commanders, Abu Aqla Keikel, the de facto ruler of Gezira, defected and surrendered to the military.
This prompted RSF fighters to attack villages and towns in Gezira perceived as loyal to Keikel, according to local reports.
The war in Sudan began in April 2023, when simmering tensions between the army and the RSF exploded into open fighting in Khartoum, before spreading across the country.
The war was marked by atrocities such as mass rapes and ethnic killings. The United Nations and international rights groups say these acts amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, particularly in the western region of Darfur, which has faced a severe assault from the RSF.
The conflict has killed more than 24,000 people so far, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a group that has been monitoring the conflict since its inception.
