One local rights group says that Rapid Support Forces fighters invaded a village and killed up to 100 people, displacing large numbers of others.
Human rights groups and activists in Sudan have condemned on Thursday an attack led by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in a small village in the Gezira state in east-central part of the country that allegedly killed more than 100 people, with several local sources saying the casualties could be higher.
The RSF, which has been engaged in war with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) since April 2023, fired heavy artillery at the village of Wad al-Noura on Wednesday before fighters stormed the village, according to local reports.
The Wad Madani Resistance Committee, a pro-democracy group, said in a post on Facebook Wednesday that RSF fighters “invaded the village” and looted houses there, killing up to 100 people and displacing large numbers of women and children.
The committee condemned the attack as a “genocide” and a “bloody massacre,” adding that villagers attempted to seek help from the Sudanese army forces stationed in the nearby city of al-Manaqil, to no avail.
Videos circulating on social media showed people burying dozens of bodies in a mass grave in the village.
لحظة دفن ضحايا مجزرة ود النورة في مقبرة جماعية pic.twitter.com/o01cuk2RDi
— Hamdtoo (@Hamdtoo_mh) June 5, 2024The RSF issued a statement Wednesday saying its forces attacked three army battalions that were mobilized in al-Manaqil to attack their positions in Jabal Awliya.
“Our forces attacked three camps west, south and north of Wad al-Noura,” the statement read. Clashes erupted with the army forces, according to the RSF, that killed eight of their members and wounded several others.
The RSF said it seized four military vehicles as well as dozens of weapons, including Kalashnikov rifles.
The Sudanese Armed Forces has yet to comment on the attack.
The attack and the high casualties stirred outrage among activists and political groups in Sudan, where the war between the RSF and SAF is raging into a second year.
The Transitional Sovereign Council, which is seen as close to the army, vehemently condemned the RSF attack, saying in a Thursday statement that “the heinous massacre against defenseless civilians” is another in the series of crimes committed by the RSF in its areas of control.
“These are criminal acts that reflect the systematic behavior of these militias in targeting civilians, plundering their property, and forcibly displacing them from their areas,” the statement read. It urged the international community to hold the RSF accountable for the actions.
‘Gross human rights violations’
The Sudanese rights group Emergency Lawyers described the attack in Wad al-Noura “as a painful example of gross human rights violations.”
In a statement released on Thursday, the group said the incident amounts to “a serious crime against humanity and a flagrant violation of the provisions of international humanitarian law and conventions.”
Emergency Lawyers called on the international community to ensure the protection of civilians in Sudan and to pressure the warring parties to respect international humanitarian law and human rights conventions.
The Sudanese Congress political party also denounced the attack in a statement issued Wednesday, calling it “a heinous crime” against innocent civilians. It further condemned the RSF’s alleged human rights violations in Gezira since capturing it last December.
Since the war between the SAF and the RSF erupted on April 15, 2023, the fighting has spread across Sudan, with the RSF taking control of all the states in the Darfur region and parts of Khartoum as well as the Gezira state, Sudan’s breadbasket.
The death toll in Sudan’s war remains unclear. While UN aid agencies estimate that more than 15,000 people have been killed in the conflict since April 2023, the United States believes the number to be as high as 150,000.
“We literally don’t know how many people have died, possibly to a factor of 10 or 15. The number was mentioned earlier 15 to 30,000. Some think it’s at 150,000,” US special envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello said during a hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in early May.
More than 8.8 million have been displaced, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA. The war has created what UN agencies describe as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with the World Food Programme warning on Wednesday of looming widespread hunger and malnutrition in the country.
Meanwhile, both sides to the conflict have been accused by UN agencies and rights groups of serious human rights violations and abuses. In December the United States accused the SAF and RSF of war crimes in Sudan.