Sudanese rights activists and local responders on Thursday said scores of civilians had been killed at sites across Sudan in the past week as the army intensified air strikes.Sudanese rights activists and local responders on Thursday said scores of civilians had been killed at sites across Sudan in the past week as the army intensified air strikes.
It’s been nearly 18 months into the war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese army.
While the RSF controls almost half of the country, the army has recently deployed its superior air power to help it regain some territory in the capital Khartoum, and to pound other areas occupied by its rivals.
Sudan’s war, which erupted from a power struggle between the army and the RSF ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule and free elections, has already created the world’s largest displacement crisis and caused famine.
Emergency Lawyers, a Sudanese human rights group, said hundreds of people had been killed in such strikes across the country.
It did not state the period of time for that casualty toll but said it demonstrated “the armed forces’ indifference to protecting defenceless civilians”.
In Hasaheisa, a town in El Gezira state south of Khartoum where the RSF has stationed many fighters, airstrikes killed or injured over 100 people on Monday, Emergency Lawyers said.
An activist from the area said at least 38 people were killed, mostly children. He shared the video with Reuters of the aftermath of the strike, appearing to show a residential area.
In the North Kordofan town of Humrat Alsheikh, west of Khartoum, an airstrike on Oct. 5 killed 30 people and injured more than 100, Emergency Lawyers said, posting a video that appeared to show a market that had been hit.
Reuters could not independently verify the footage in either video.
A day earlier, a strike that hit another market in al-Koma in North Darfur killed 61 people, according to the local emergency response room. Those killed included 13 children, U.N. agency UNICEF said.
The army, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has accused the RSF of occupying civilian homes and launching attacks from civilian areas. The RSF denies using civilians as human shields.
The paramilitary force has been accused of raiding villages and neighbourhoods, arbitrary killings, and sexual violence in areas under its control.
On Thursday, a statement by the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, a former rebel group aligned with the army, said the RSF had raided and set fire to 17 villages in North Darfur, killing or injuring hundreds.
It accused the force of ethnic cleansing akin to the violence the RSF is accused of committing in West Darfur last year.
