Sudanese paramilitaries have killed more than 200 people, including women and children, during a three-day assault on villages in the country’s south, according to a lawyer group monitoring the war.
The Emergency Lawyers group, which documents human rights violations, reported that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) attacked unarmed civilians in the villages of Al-Kadaris and Al-Khelwat in White Nile state.
Since Saturday, the RSF has carried out “executions, kidnappings, enforced disappearances and property looting” in the villages, leaving hundreds wounded or missing, the group said.
According to the lawyers, some residents were shot at while trying to escape across the Nile River, with some drowning in the attempt. The group described the attack as an act of “genocide.”
Sudan’s army-aligned foreign ministry stated that the death toll from the RSF attacks had reached 433 civilians, including babies, calling the assault a “horrible massacre.”
While both the army and the RSF have been accused of war crimes, the paramilitary force has gained particular notoriety for committing ethnic cleansing and systematic sexual violence.
The ongoing war has claimed tens of thousands of lives, displaced more than 12 million people, and created what the International Rescue Committee has described as the “biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded.”
‘Bodies lying on the streets’
White Nile state remains divided between the warring factions.
The Sudanese army controls the southern regions, including the state capital, Rabak, two major cities, and a key military base. Meanwhile, the RSF holds the northern part of the state, bordering Khartoum, where the latest attacks occurred.
Residents of the two villages, located about 90 kilometres (55 miles) south of Khartoum, said thousands fled their homes, crossing to the western bank of the Nile after RSF shelling.
A medical source speaking to AFP on Monday, under the condition of anonymity for safety reasons, reported that bodies were lying in the streets while others had been killed inside their homes, with no one able to reach them.
Fighting has escalated in recent weeks as the army intensifies its efforts to reclaim full control of the capital from paramilitary forces.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Sunday that those trapped in conflict zones in and around Khartoum have faced indiscriminate shootings, looting, forced displacement, and reports of family separations, missing children, abductions, and sexual violence.
Many children, it added, are showing signs of severe distress after witnessing the violence around them.
“This is a living nightmare for children, and it must end,” said Sheldon Yett, UNICEF’s representative for Sudan.
Famine-hit camp under attack
In western Sudan, RSF shelling and gunfire have intensified this week in a famine-stricken displacement camp near El-Fasher, the besieged capital of North Darfur.
Hundreds of families fled the violence, seeking refuge in nearby towns, but many were robbed and attacked along the roads, according to civilians.
The Zamzam camp, which houses between 500,000 and one million people, was the first location where famine was officially declared in Sudan last August under a UN-backed assessment.
