ALBAWABA - UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, expressed concerns over reports of "atrocious crimes" in the central Al Jazirah state, including the mass killing of civilians by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The RSF has denied attacking civilians, claiming that its forces are engaged in combat with military-armed militias. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and over 11 million have been displaced in Sudan's 18-month conflict.
Last week, the RSF took a serious hit when one of its leaders, Abu Aqla Kayka, defected to the military, turning Al Jazirah state into a major conflict.
In what it called the first high-profile defection to its side, the army said he had taken "a large number of his forces" with him. The RSF said that its soldiers will "decisively deal with everyone carrying arms" and protect themselves.
"Extensive massacres in one village after another" were being carried out by the RSF, according to a statement released on Saturday by the Wad Madani Resistance Committee, which advocates for the end of the conflict and democratic governance in Sudan.
The Sudanese doctors' union urged the UN to pressure the warring parties into establishing secure humanitarian routes into areas that the RSF was threatening to "genocide" in.
Earlier on Sunday, local Sudanese activists confirmed that at least 124 people were killed in an attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a village in Al Jazirah state, south of Sudan’s capital Khartoum on Friday.
The activist said that communication obstacles may have made registering the actual number of victims impossible, which may be "much higher". They said that all Starlink devices, which are the only civilian communication method, had been seized by the RSF militias.
More than 30 villages in the eastern Al-Jazirah region have been abandoned as inhabitants have fled retaliatory militia raids, the activist added.
