A rights group claims that Sudanese rebels attacked the southern White Nile state over the course of three days and killed hundreds of people.
More than 200 people were killed in the attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to Emergency Lawyers, a group tracking rights violations in the Sudanese army-RSF conflict that has lasted for 21 months.
“Field executions, abductions, forced disappearances and lootings”, were carried out, the group said. In a “massacre,” according to Emergency Lawyers, some victims died after being shot at while attempting to flee across the Nile River.
Sudan’s army-aligned Ministry of Foreign Affairs said later the number of victims had “so far reached 433 people, including infants”.
RSF forces alone killed or injured dozens, according to the Paris-based Sudan Tribune.
A resident who was quoted by the media described how RSF motorcycle pilots opened fire on residents on the streets and inside their homes.
The reported attacks come as Sudan’s government gained ground against the RSF in and around the capital, Khartoum, about 100km (62 miles) north of al-Gitaina.
An RSF checkpoint that connected the capital’s Abu Hamama neighborhood to the city center was destroyed on Monday, according to the army’s claim that it now has control over the city.
Turkiye’s Anadolu news agency reported that Sudan’s army now controls most areas in southern-central Khartoum.
Plans for rival governments
This week in Nairobi, the RSF and its allies have been working on a charter to establish a parallel government in regions under their control.
However, the declaration of a “Government of Peace and Unity” was postponed.
The National Umma Party, which is divided over whether to participate, has been moved from later in the week to allow for a fuller representation from SPLM-N, the party’s leader, Fadlallah Burma Nasir.
A sizable military group known as the SPLM-N, which previously had a strong influence in the conflict between the army and the RSF, controls large swaths of the famine-stricken South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.
Some of the capital’s, Kordofan, and a large portion of the region’s famine-trauma-stricken region are under the control of the RSF.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been rife with fighters aligned with his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, who is now fighting for the army.
Victims of abuse and war crimes have been on both sides.
The conflict has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people, caused more than 12 million to flee, and caused the “biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded” according to the International Rescue Committee.
Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced last week that it would form a transitional government to facilitate elections and put an end to the conflict, as well as making strategic advances against RSF forces in Sennar, Gezira, and the important city of Umm Ruwaba in North Kordofan.
In a report released on Tuesday, the UN Human Rights Office warned that as fighting spreads to new areas, “entrenched impunity” is causing grave human rights violations and abuse in the nation.
The office has warned that as hostilities between rival parties become more violent, and it has issued a warning in its new report that it wants to see a more comprehensive international campaign to stop the flow of weapons.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk cited the ongoing and deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian objects, as well as summary executions, sexual violence, and other violations and abuses as examples of how both parties have failed to fully uphold international humanitarian and human rights law’s rules and standards.
Source: Aljazeera
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