Cairo– A humanitarian organization on Friday accused forces affiliated with a Sudanese paramilitary group of targeting civilians in an area Sudan free from any military presence during major muslim holidays27 people died, including elderly people.
The Sudan Doctors Network, a group that monitors violence across the country, blamed forces linked to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces for attacking villages on Thursday in the al-Murra region, west of the city of Barah in North Kordofan.
It said the attacks were worsening the already “devastating humanitarian conditions that civilians are suffering due to the ongoing war.”
Full-scale war broke out in April 2023 after long-standing tensions between the army and the Rapid Support Forces escalated. The Kordofan region has become one of the main epicenters of the conflict, with fighting intensifying on multiple fronts, including drone warfare.
The paramilitary RSF and its allies control the western Darfur region and areas of the Kordofan region along the border with South Sudan – both areas rich in oil fields and gold mines. There were also repeated clashes with RSF forces over Barah.
Thursday’s attacks were carried out during the second day Eid al-Adha or “Feast of Sacrifice”, an Islamic holiday celebrated by millions of Muslims around the world.
“Targeting villages and civilian areas in this horrific manner and exterminating civilians is a gross violation of international humanitarian law,” the doctors’ network said in a statement.
earlier this month, intense clashes More than 61 people, including nine children, were killed in South Kordofan in a clash between forces linked to the rebel group Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North and the Otoro tribe in southern Sudan. Last week, a drone strike 28 people have been killed and dozens more injured in a bustling market in central Sudan.
War broke out in Sudan in April 2023 after long-running tensions between the army and the RSF escalated into full-scale war. conflict has killed at least 59,000 peopledisplaced approximately 13 million, and pushed Many parts of the country are in the grip of famine. More than 30 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.
Both of Sudan’s warring sides have been accused by the United Nations and rights groups are being torturedWhich also includes ethnic cleansing, extrajudicial killings And sexual violence Against civilians. Aid groups say the actual toll may be much higher because access to areas of fighting in the vast country is limited.
