At least 85 people have been killed in a week of brutal attacks by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) south of Khartoum, an activist group reported on Wednesday.
“For the seventh consecutive day, the Janjaweed militias continue their violent attacks on villages west of Jebel Awliya, resulting in the deaths of more than 85 people and the injury of dozens,” the Sudanese resistance committee said, using an alternative name for the RSF.
Emergency Lawyers, a group of volunteer legal professionals, reported that more than 15 villages in the area had been attacked, with dozens killed and hundreds wounded.
The RSF, commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has been engaged in a violent conflict with Sudan’s army, led by de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, since April 2023. Last Thursday, the army declared it had regained full control of Khartoum, following Burhan’s earlier claim that the capital had been “liberated” from RSF forces. Daglo later confirmed on Sunday that his forces had withdrawn from the city after intense clashes with the military.
The war has led to what the United Nations describes as the world’s worst hunger and displacement crisis, with more than 12 million people uprooted and tens of thousands killed. A UN-backed assessment has also declared famine in parts of the country.
Despite the army reclaiming Khartoum, Sudan remains effectively split in two. The military controls the east and north, while the RSF dominates much of the Darfur region in the west and parts of the south, prolonging a devastating conflict with no clear resolution in sight.
