Dozens of civilians have been killed and thousands displaced in Sudan’s Gezira state, aid groups said, after several days of attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been battling the army for more than a year.
A union of doctors and a youth group said the RSF attacked several villages and towns in the east-central state of Gezira, looting and vandalising public and private properties, and leaving dozens dead, The Associated Press news agency reported on Saturday.
RSF attacks in al-Sireha, a village in Gezira state, continued for three days, with 50 people killed in one day alone, according to aid groups that have been tracking the deaths and publishing the list, seen by Al Jazeera.
A network of activists from the area told the AFP news agency that the death toll from Friday’s attack was at least 50, while the Sudan News (sudanakhbar) website reported that as many as 124 people have been killed and 200 wounded so far.
Fighting erupted on April 15, 2023, as a result of a power struggle between the RSF led by Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo and army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. Since then, the conflict has displaced more than 10 million people, creating one of the worst global humanitarian crises, according to data from the United Nations.
Since September, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have been pursuing a major offensive to retake areas in and around the capital, Khartoum, from the control of the RSF.
Amgad Faried, a Sudanese politician and the executive director of the Sudanese think tank Fikra for Studies and Development, said the attack is linked to the recent defection of an RSF commander.
He reminded that Abuagla Keikal – a former army officer who became the RSF’s top commander in the southeastern state of Gezira – changed his side in the war on October 20.
“Since then, the RSF has been launching a wave of attacks against east Gezira and al-Butana areas, where Abuagla originally is from,” he said, speaking to Al Jazeera from the Egyptian capital, Cairo.
Faried added that Abuagla has himself been 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 tracking the war, told the AP late on Friday.
In the village of Saqiaah, at least 12 other people were killed, the group said.
It confirmed the number of casualties to AFP on Saturday, adding that since the attack on Friday morning, rescue workers and villagers have been unable to evacuate the wounded “due to the bombing and snipers” from the RSF.
The Sudan Doctors Union said the RSF advances had turned areas in eastern Gezira into “a brutal war zone”.
‘Forgotten crisis’
Ted Chaiban, deputy head of UNICEF, the United Nations children’s agency, called for more international attention to “the forgotten crisis” in Sudan.
In an interview with The AP on Friday, Chaiban said the war has created “one of the most acute crises in living memory” with more than 14 million people forced to flee their homes, plunging Sudan into the world’s largest displacement crisis.
“We’ve never in a generation seen these types of numbers,” he said.
About 25.6 million people – more than half of Sudan’s population – are expected to face acute hunger this year due to the conflict.
The UNICEF and the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, are calling for unimpeded 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 said amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, particularly in the western region of Darfur, which has been facing a bitter onslaught by the RSF.
