Sudan: RSF kills scores of civilians in Gezira after commander defects to the army
More than 100 people have been killed by Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters in Sudan's Gezira state over the past week, as the paramilitary group has staged a string of brutal attacks, following the defection of one of its top commanders.
Sudanese rights group Middle Call said it had documented at least 124 people killed and at least 150 others were abducted by the RSF between 20 and 25 October in the east-central state.
RSF fighters indiscriminately shot at civilians and committed sexual violence against women and girls, according to the United Nations.
"I am shocked and deeply appalled that human rights violations of the kind witnessed in Darfur last year - such as rape, targeted attacks, sexual violence, and mass killings – are being repeated in Al Jazirah state. These are atrocious crimes," said Clementine Nkweta-Salami, UN humanitarian coordinator in Sudan.
"Women, children, and the most vulnerable are bearing the brunt of a conflict that has already taken far too many lives."
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Residents in villages such as Safita Ghanoubab, al-Hilaliya, and al-Aziba were reportedly assaulted and threatened, the UN said. Many were forced to flee for their lives.
RSF fighters looted homes and shops and set farms on fire.
Earlier this month, Abu Aqla Keikal, a senior RSF commander based in Gezira, defected and handed himself over to the Sudanese army, which has been at war with the paramilitary group since April 2023.
The army subsequently pardoned Keikal for atrocities committed under his command.
Since then, the RSF has launched a string of devastating reprisal attacks across Gezira.
RSF taunts villagers
Videos shared on social media and analysed by Sky News showed RSF fighters assaulting villagers and taunting them with Keikal's name.
"Look, Keikal! Look at your remnants!" one fighter said, forcing men to sit against a wall.
In another video, men fleeing Gezira's farmlands are told to wait for Keikal to pick them up, then mocked and insulted and told to bleat like sheep.
At least 4,000 people have been displaced in the city of Tambiuk and other parts of eastern Gezira due to the attacks, according to the International Organisation for Migration’s Tracking Matrix.
Gezira, which lies between the White Nile and the Blue Nile, has previously been referred to as Sudan's "bread basket", but many of its farmers have now fled and its farmlands have been devastated.
Elsewhere in Sudan, near the city of El Fasher in north Darfur, an Ilyushin-76 military plane crashed last week, killing two Russians and several Sudanese fighters, according to local reports. Russia's embassy in Sudan said it had launched a probe to determine whether its citizens were on board.
Attacks on hospitals, markets and schools in El Fasher in recent days have killed dozens, according to a report from the Yale School of Public Health’s humanitarian research lab.
The war has displaced 11 million people in total, including nearly three million who have fled to neighbouring countries.
Nearly 25 million people in Sudan require humanitarian assistance, with 13 million facing acute food insecurity. Around 3.7 million Sudanese children under the age of five are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
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