The Wad Madani Resistance Committees have shared photographs of a “mass grave”, claiming that the army did not heed villagers' calls for help.
An attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a village in central Sudan has killed “up to 100” people, according to local pro-democracy activists.
The Wad Madani Resistance Committees reported on social media on Wednesday night that the RSF, which has been at war with the regular army for more than a year, attacked the village of Wad al-Noura in Gezira state. in two waves”, deploying heavy weapons. artillery.
The committees shared photos of dozens of bodies wrapped up for burial in what they described as a “mass grave” in the public square, alleging that the Sudanese military had not heeded a request for help. He said he was “expecting a confirmed number of dead and injured.”
The report could not immediately be verified.
The RSF has repeatedly besieged and attacked entire villages across Sudan, particularly in the agricultural state of Gezira, where it took control of the capital, Wad Madani, in December.
In a statement on Wednesday, the group said it had attacked army and allied militia bases around Wad al-Noura, but did not acknowledge any civilian casualties.
But the Wad Madani Resistance Committees accused him of deadly attacks on civilians, looting and forcing women and children to seek refuge in the nearby town of Managil.
The military-aligned Sovereign Transitional Council condemned the reported attack.
“These are criminal acts that reflect the systematic behavior of these militias in attacking civilians,” he said in a statement.
'Time is running out'
Sudan's civil war erupted in April 2023, when rivalry between Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy and RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo erupted into all-out conflict.
While much of the early fighting took place around the capital Khartoum, it quickly spread to other parts of Sudan, including the southwestern state of Darfur, where it quickly took on an inter-ethnic dimension as old rivalries linked to a previous war resurfaced. which started in 2003.
The RSF emerged from what rebel groups call the Janjaweed, an Arab force that killed thousands of non-Arabs in Darfur during a war that ended with a peace deal in 2020.
The war of the past 14 months has killed tens of thousands of people, destroyed infrastructure and crippled Sudan's economy.
Some 8.3 million people have been displaced, many forced to flee to neighboring Chad and South Sudan, as hunger and starvation spread.
“Time is running out for millions of people in Sudan who are at imminent risk of famine, displaced from their lands, living under shelling and isolated from humanitarian assistance,” the United Nations agencies warned in a joint statement. last week.
The RSF has seized most of western Sudan and is now seeking to advance towards the center of the country.
Meanwhile, fighting has resumed between the army and the western city of el-Fasher, with both sides using heavy weapons and artillery.
Claire Nicolet, head of Sudan emergency response for Doctors Without Borders, said the conflict is having a catastrophic effect on the population.
“If the situation continues like this, there will be really a very high mortality, that's for sure,” he told Al Jazeera.
