Sudanese paramilitary RSF accused of killing almost 300 people in village raids

Rights group says targets of Rapid Support Forces in North Kordofan were ‘empty of military objectives’

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have killed nearly 300 people in attacks in North Kordofan state that began on Saturday, according to Sudanese activists.

The RSF has been fighting the Sudanese army in the area, one of the key frontlines of a civil war in Sudan that has raged since April 2023.

The Emergency Lawyers human rights group said on Monday that the RSF attacked several villages on Saturday around the city of Bara, which the paramilitary controls.

The group said more than 200 people were killed in the village of Shag Alnom and 46 people – including pregnant women and children – were killed in Hilat Hamid. Looting raids on other villages killed 38 civilians and dozens more people were missing, it added.

More than 3,400 people have fled the recent fighting, according to the UN.

Emergency Lawyers said: “It has been proven that these targeted villages were completely empty of any military objectives, which makes clear the criminal nature of these crimes carried out in complete disregard of international humanitarian law.” It placed the responsibility with the RSF’s leadership.

The army has taken firm control of the centre and east of Sudan, while the RSF is working to consolidate its control of western regions including North Kordofan.

Fighting between the RSF and the army restarted this month in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, after a weeks-long lull.

In fighting last Friday that lasted hours, the RSF captured a livestock market, prison and military base in El Fasher and entered the city’s centre. The Sudanese army pushed the paramilitary group out the next day but RSF forces continued shelling the city using drones.

El Fasher, the largest city in Darfur and a stronghold of the Sudanese army, is the last major city in the Darfur region that is not under RSF control. It has witnessed rising violence this year as the Sudanese army and RSF forces fight over it. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled the city to nearby Tawila since April.

A report released early this month by Médecins Sans Frontières showed systematic patterns of violence including looting, mass killings, sexual violence, abductions, starvation and attacks against markets, health facilities and other civilian infrastructure in El Fasher.

Early this month, the UN sounded the alarm over the worsening conditions in Sudan, saying the situation was particularly dire in El Fasher, where those remaining were facing “extreme shortages” of food and clean water.

The US and human rights groups have accused the RSF of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Its soldiers have carried out a series of violent looting raids in territory it has taken control of across the country.

The RSF leadership says it will bring to justice anyone found responsible for such acts.

Sudan’s civil war has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, driving more than half the population into hunger and spreading diseases including cholera across the country. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than 12 million people have fled their homes since the fighting broke out two years ago, and a global reduction in aid spending has stretched the humanitarian response.

The UN’s office for humanitarian affairs has warned that Darfur’s rainy season, which is expected to continue until October, threatens to exacerbate the humanitarian situation by increasing the risk of floods, access constraints and outbreaks of disease.

Cover photo:  People queueing to register for aid in North Kordofan at a camp for those who have fled their homes. Photograph: Guy Peterson/AFP/Getty Images