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20-02-2025
KHARTOUM: More than 200 unarmed civilians have been killed in a cluster of villages in Sudan over three days by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that is involved in a brutal conflict with the military, a local rights group has said.
The Emergency Lawyers network said the attacks happened in al-Kadaris and al-Khelwat towards the north of White Nile state, areas where the military had no presence.
RSF fighters were guilty of “executions, kidnappings, enforced disappearances and property looting”, the network added.
The RSF, which was allied to the military before the civil war broke out in April 2023, has not commented on the allegations.
The two had come to power together in a coup but fell out over an internationally backed plan to move towards civilian rule.
Some senior RSF leaders are currently in Kenya where they are expected to announce plans to form their own government in areas under their control.
Analysts warn the move could deepen divisions in Sudan.
Humanitarians have been sounding the alarm over Sudan, where the conflict has forced about 12 million people from their homes.
Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed, with both the RSF and army accused of committing atrocities.
At the heart of this conflict is a falling out between Sudan’s de facto ruler and army chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and his deputy-turned-rival Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, who leads the RSF.
The RSF was recently dealt a significant blow when the army regained control of parts of the capital, Khartoum including its military headquarters.
Beyond the capital, the army has also won near total control of the crucial state of Gezira.
Following the setbacks, the RSF has rebounded with plans to launch a rival government in areas still under its control, which are mainly in Darfur and parts of Kordofan state.
The RSF is meeting allied groups in Nairobi to finalise the adoption of what it calls a “political charter for the Government of Peace and Unity”.
Gen Burhan has rejected the move, and has vowed to reclaim the whole of Khartoum.
He is currently based in Port Sudan, having been forced to leave Khartoum months after the civil war broke out when the RSF seized the military headquarters and the presidential palace.
In April last year, Sudan was thrown into disarray when its army and a powerful paramilitary group began a vicious struggle for power.
The war, which continues to this day, has claimed more than 15,000 lives. And in what the United Nations has called one of the world’s “largest displacement crises”, about nine million people have been forced to flee their homes.
There have been warnings of genocide regarding the western region of Darfur, where residents say they have been targeted by fighters based on their ethnicity.
Sudan is in north-east Africa and is one of the largest countries on the continent, covering 1.9 million sq km (734,000 sq miles).
The population of Sudan is predominantly Muslim and the country’s official languages are Arabic and English.
Even before the war started, Sudan was one the poorest countries in the world. Its 46 million people were in 2022 living on an average annual income of $750 (£600) a head. The conflict has made things much worse. Last year, the economy shrunk by 40%, Sudan’s finance minister said. (Int’l News Desk)
