At least 48 people were killed and dozens injured in what doctors and activists described on Saturday as ethnically motivated attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the town of Al-Maliha, North Darfur state.

The Sudan Doctors Network said in a statement that the RSF had “carried out mass killings” of 48 people in Al-Maliha “on an ethnic basis,” injuring 63 others.

The network warned of mass killings targeting Darfur communities, saying this was complicating the situation in the region and risked turning the conflict into a full-scale civil war.

“The network reminds the international community of the mass killing that took place in El Geneina against members of the Masalit tribe and fears a repeat of that experience in North Darfur state,” it said.

The group called on the international and regional communities to oppose any military operations that could transform the conflict between the Sudanese army and the RSF into a civil war. It said the RSF was targeting communities in the region under the pretext they were supporting the army, leading to displacement and threatening social peace.

Sharaf al-Din Mahmoud, an activist from Al-Maliha, accused the RSF of committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing against the Meidob ethnic group. He told Sudan Tribune that preliminary figures indicated more than 40 people had been killed, with many more wounded.

Mahmoud said the RSF had killed leaders of the Meidob tribe’s traditional administration, as well as local government employees, teachers, doctors, emergency room activists, and civil society leaders.

He also said the attacking forces had confiscated Starlink satellite internet devices and were preventing civilians from leaving, effectively using them as human shields amid attacks by a joint force seeking to retake the area. The main market was also looted and burned, he added.

Al-Maliha hosts more than 100,000 displaced people who have arrived from various parts of Darfur, some of whom are living in shelters, aid groups say.