“The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), at war with the army since mid-April 2023, first attacked the village, located 100 km north of Al-Jazira’s capital Wad Madani, on Tuesday (November 19, 2024) evening,” eyewitnesses said. File
| Photo Credit: AP

An attack by paramilitary forces that began Tuesday (November 19, 2024) evening has left 40 people dead, a medic told AFP from a central Sudan village, following a month of escalating violence in Al-Jazira state.

“All 40 people suffered direct gunshot wounds,” the medic said from Wad Rawah Hospital, just north of Wad Oshaib village, requesting anonymity for their own protection after repeated attacks on medical personnel.

Explained | The status of the civil war in Sudan

“The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), at war with the army since mid-April 2023, first attacked the village, located 100km north of Al-Jazira’s capital Wad Madani, on Tuesday (November 19, 2024) evening,” eyewitnesses said.

“The attack resumed this morning,” one eyewitness told AFP by phone on Wednesday (November 20, 2024), adding that fighters were “looting property”.

It is the latest in a month-long series of attacks on Al-Jazira villages by the RSF following the defection of a key paramilitary commander to the Army’s side last month.

According to the United Nations, over 3,40,000 people have been displaced from their homes in the state, a key agricultural region that was formerly considered Sudan’s breadbasket.

Also Read: Russia vetoes UN resolution calling for immediate ceasefire in war between Sudan’s rival forces

The U.N. Secretary-General’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Friday (November 15, 2024) that the violence in Al-Jazira “is putting the lives of tens of thousands of people at risk”.

The war between the Army, led by Sudan’s de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has already killed tens of thousands of people across the country.

It has also uprooted over 11 million people, more than 3 million of whom have fled across Sudan’s borders.

Villages under siege

The brutal war has seen both sides accused of war crimes, with RSF fighters accused of laying siege to entire villages, carrying out summary executions and systematically looting civilian property.

Eyewitnesses, rights groups and the U.N. have reported villages in eastern Al-Jazira coming under total siege in recent weeks, causing compounding humanitarian crises.

In the village of Al-Hilaliya, residents have been cut off from essential supplies, with dozens falling sick “allegedly due to poisoned food.”

The U.N.’s Dujarric said on Friday (November 15, 2024) that many of the displaced arriving in neighbouring states “had walked for days and arrived with nothing but the clothes on their backs.”

Even in areas safe from the fighting, hundreds of thousands of displaced people are facing epidemics including cholera, decimated infrastructure and a looming famine.

“They are now sheltering in the open, including children, women, older persons and people who are sick,” Dujarric added.

According to health officials and the U.N., the conflict has forced 80% of health facilities in conflict-affected areas to shut down.

Sudan is currently facing what the U.N. has called one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent memory, with 26 million people suffering from acute hunger.

The Sudanese Foreign Ministry accused paramilitaries of causing at least 120 civilian deaths. File
| Photo Credit: AP

The Sudanese Foreign Ministry accused paramilitaries late Thursday (November 7, 2024) of causing at least 120 civilian deaths over two days in Al-Jazira State, Sudan’s pre-war breadbasket where fighting has raged since last month.

Explained | The status of the civil war in Sudan

“The Janjaweed militia (paramilitaries) committed a new massacre in the town of Hilaliya in Al-Jazira state over the past two days, resulting in 120 martyrs so far, killed either by gunfire or due to food poisoning and lack of medical care affecting hundreds of civilians,” the Ministry said in a statement.

The army-backed government routinely refers to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) it has been fighting since April 2023 as Janjaweed, an infamous militia recruited by the then government in Khartoum to suppress an ethnic minority rebellion in the western region of Darfur two decades ago.

The Sudan’s Doctors Union said that “after looting and stealing all the possessions of residents in Hilaliya, the militia detained people inside mosques, only allowing them to leave after paying large sums, which are impossible to afford after the extensive looting and theft”.

Witnesses say that the RSF has imposed a two-week siege on the town, preventing residents from leaving.

The RSF recently intensified attacks against civilians in Al-Jazira state after one of its key commanders defected to the regular army.

Last month, at least 200 people were killed in the state, which is under army control, according to an AFP tally based on medical and activist sources. The United Nations said that 135,000 civilians were displaced.

The conflict in Sudan pits the regular army, under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, against the RSF, led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

It has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 11 million, 3.1 million of them as refugees abroad, according to the International Organization for Migration.