A harrowing image showing dozens of bodies strewn through irrigation canals in central Sudan has become one of the starkest visual symbols yet of the country's spiralling civil war, as investigators warn the killings point to an ethnically targeted purge carried out during recent fighting.
The image, revealed as part of a mid-December 2025 investigation by CNN in collaboration with Lighthouse Reports and human rights researchers, captures what experts say is evidence of mass executions and deliberate efforts to conceal the dead.
