Dozens killed by RSF troops in Gezira, Sudan, aid agencies say | Sudan War News

Dozens of people have been killed and thousands left homeless in Gezira province, Sudan, aid agencies have said, after several days of attacks by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been fighting the militants for more than a year.

A doctors’ union and a youth group said the RSF attacked several towns and villages in the east-central Gezira province, looting and destroying public and private property, leaving dozens dead, the Associated Press reported on Saturday.

The RSF attack on al-Sireha, a town in Gezira district, continued for three days, killing 50 people in one day alone, according to aid groups that tracked the deaths and published the list, seen by Al Jazeera.

A group of activists in the area told AFP media that the number of dead in Friday’s incident is estimated at 50, while the Sudan News website (sudanakhbar) reported that approximately 124 people have died and 200 have been injured so far.

The war broke out on April 15, 2023, due to a power struggle between the RSF led by Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo and the army chief Adel Fattah al-Burhan. Since then, the conflict has left more than 10 million people dead, making it one of the worst disasters in the world, according to United Nations data.

Since September, the Sudanese Army (SAF) has been conducting a major offensive in and around the capital, Khartoum, under the control of the RSF.

Amgad Faried, a Sudanese politician and the executive director of Fikra for Studies and Development in Sudan, said the attack was related to the recent defection of the RSF commander.

He reminded that Abuagla Keikal – a former military officer who became the main commander of the RSF in the southeastern region of Gezira – changed his side in the war on October 20.

“Since then, the RSF has been launching a wave of attacks in the eastern areas of Gezira and al-Butana, where Abuagla is from,” he said, speaking to Al Jazeera from the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

Faried added that Abuagla is also accused of committing crimes against the people of Gezira.

In al-Sireha alone, RSF fighters killed at least 50 people and wounded 200, the Resistance Committees, a network of youth groups that monitors the conflict, told the AP late Friday.

In Saqiaah village, at least 12 more people died, the group said.

It confirmed the number of casualties to AFP on Saturday, adding that since the incident occurred on Friday morning, rescuers and civilians have not been able to evacuate the injured “due to bombardment and hijacking” by the RSF.

The Sudan Doctors Union said the RSF’s advance had turned areas east of Gezira into a “brutal war zone”.

‘The forgotten problem’

Ted Chaiban, deputy head of UNICEF, the United Nations children’s agency, called for more international attention to the “forgotten crisis” of Sudan.

In an interview with the AP on Friday, Chaiban said the war has created “one of the worst crises in living memory” with more than 14 million people forced to flee their homes, putting Sudan in the world’s worst crisis.

“We haven’t seen these kinds of numbers in a generation,” he said.

About 25.6 million people – more than half of Sudan’s population – are expected to face famine this year as a result of the conflict.

UNICEF and the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, want unrestricted access to people in need across the country.

The war has been marked by atrocities such as mass rape and “ethnic cleansing”, which the UN says amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially in the western region of Darfur, which is facing brutal attacks by the RSF.