At least 120 have been killed by Sudan’s armed forces in days of violence, the UN and a group of doctors have said.
Soldiers from the notorious Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have gone on a rampage in east-central Sudan in a multi-day attack that has killed more than 120 people in one town, a medical team and the United Nations have said.
It was the group’s latest attack against the Sudanese military after facing successive setbacks, and was finally defeated by the army in the area. This war, which has been going on for more than a year and a half, has destroyed this African country, displaced millions of its people and pushed it to the brink of starvation.
RSF soldiers rampaged through villages and towns in eastern and northern Gezira province from October 20 to 25, shooting civilians and sexually assaulting women and girls, the UN said in a statement on Saturday, adding that they looted private and government properties, including open markets.
The attack left more than 46,500 people in the town of Tamboul and other villages east and north of Gezira last week, according to Sunday data from the International Organization for Migration’s Tracking Matrix.
“The massacres and horrific human rights violations in Gezira province add to the humanitarian crisis that is unacceptable to the Sudanese people,” IOM Director General Amy Pope told The Associated Press ahead of her trip to the country next week.
He called for joint international efforts to stop the conflict, saying, “There is no time to lose. Millions of people are in a good situation.”
“These are brutal crimes,” Clementine Nkweta-Salami, the UN’s Sudan coordinator, said in a statement on Saturday. “Women, children and the most vulnerable are bearing the brunt of the conflict which has killed so many people.”
He said this attack is similar to the horrors that happened during the genocide in Darfur in the early 2000s, which included rape, sexual violence and mass killings.
The RSF was born from the Arab militias, often called the Janjaweed, organized by the former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir against the population of Darfur who identify as Central or East Africa. At the time, the Janjaweed were accused of mass murder, rape and other atrocities, and Darfur was akin to genocide. Janjaweed groups still support the RSF.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada says it launched a humanitarian initiative in February to reunite Canadian families with loved ones affected by the conflict in Sudan. On September 7, no one had arrived. Khalid Medani, director of McGill University’s Institute of Islamic Studies and chair of African studies, says there is a ‘disparity’ in the Canadian government’s response to other problems such as those in Ukraine, Afghanistan and Syria, and the war in Sudan.
The Sudan Doctors’ Union said in a statement that at least 124 people were killed and 200 others were injured in the city of Sariha, adding that the group had rounded up at least 150 others. It called on the UN Security Council to pressure the RSF to open “safe channels” for aid groups to reach people in the affected villages.
“There is no way to help the injured or evacuate them for treatment,” said the statement.
Photos circulating online, some shared by RSF fighters themselves, show members of the militia group torturing detainees. Another video shows a man wearing a military uniform holding an old man by the chin and dragging him as other armed men sing in the background.
Matthew Saltmarsh, a spokesperson for the UN refugee agency, says people trapped in war-torn Sudan are in dire straits and there is no end to the ongoing conflict.
RSF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Co-ordination of Civil Democratic Forces, a coalition of pro-democracy parties and groups, also accused the RSF of attacking villages and opening fire on civilians, as well as rounding up and mistreating “large numbers of civilians.”
In a statement, the coalition held RSF “responsible for these serious violations” and called for the organizers to be held accountable.
After more than a year of a brutal civil war in Sudan that has left cities in ruins and displaced millions of people, humanitarian organizations are warning the world to forget about the conflict just as international aid is needed.
The attack on Gezira took place as the army succeeded in retaking areas held by the RSF.
In September, the army launched a major operation in and around the capital, Khartoum, capturing many areas from the RSF. And, earlier this month, it took control of Jebel Moya, a strategic mountainous area in Gezira province, as well as areas of Gezira and nearby Sinnar province, driving out RSF forces.
In October, the chief commander of the RSF, Abu Aqlah Keikel, the governor of Gezira, defected and surrendered to the military.
The federal government is opening a new immigration pathway for people caught up in the conflict in Sudan who have multiple families who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents.
That prompted RSF fighters to attack villages and towns in Gezira considered loyal to Keikel, according to local reports.
The war in Sudan began in April 2023, when tensions between the army and the RSF erupted into open warfare in Khartoum, before spreading across the country.
This war has been characterized by atrocities such as mass rape and ethnic killings. The UN and human rights organizations say these actions amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially in the western region of Darfur, which is facing brutal attacks by the RSF.
The conflict has killed more than 24,000 people so far, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a group that has monitored the conflict since it began.
Source link
