Fighters from a Sudanese paramilitary group rampaged through a central village, looting, setting fire and killing at least 85 people including women and children, officials and residents said Saturday, the latest atrocity in the country’s devastating 18-month conflict.
Sudan’s foreign ministry said in a statement that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces began attacking Galgani in Sennar province in late July, and that last week RSF fighters “opened fire indiscriminately on unarmed residents of the village” as they resisted attempts to abduct and sexually abuse women and girls. More than 150 villagers were wounded, the statement said.
The RSF has been repeatedly accused of massacres, rape and other serious violations across the country since the war began in April last year, when simmering tensions between the army and the group spilled over into open fighting in the capital Khartoum and elsewhere.
Hundreds of RSF fighters attacked the village on Thursday, looting and burning homes and public property, three residents said, describing an hours-long assault.
A health care worker at a local medical center told The Associated Press that the attack came after residents resisted and repelled an attack by a small group of RSF fighters.
The group retreated, but hundreds of RSF fighters returned in dozens of pickup trucks carrying automatic rifles and heavy weapons, according to the activist and another resident.
An employee who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns said as of Friday at least 80 bodies had arrived at the medical centre, including 24 women and minors.
A villager, Mohammad Tajal-Amin, said he saw seven bodies lying on the road – six men and a woman – on Friday afternoon.
“The Janjaweed are in the streets and people are not able to find and bury their dead,” he said, naming the Arab militia that became synonymous with genocide and war crimes in Darfur two decades ago and which gave rise to the RSF.
RSF spokesmen did not respond to requests for comment on Saturday.
In June, the RSF attacked Singa, the provincial capital of Sinnar, about 350 kilometres (217 miles) southeast of Khartoum. They looted the town’s main market and took over its main hospital, forcing thousands of people to flee.
The latest attack comes as the US has led efforts to restart peace talks between the military and the RSF, which the military has boycotted, which began last week in Switzerland.
Diplomats from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the African Union and the United Nations were attending the talks. RSF sent a delegation to Geneva but did not attend the meetings.
“RSF is here ready to begin talks; SAF has to decide whether to come,” Tom Perriello, the U.S. special envoy for Sudan, wrote on X on Friday, using the acronym for Sudan’s armed forces.
The talks were the latest international effort to resolve the devastating conflict that has killed thousands and pushed the county to the brink of famine. Just last month, famine was confirmed at a huge camp for displaced people in the western region of Darfur.
The conflict has seen atrocities including mass rapes and ethnically motivated killings that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to the United Nations and international rights groups.
Sudan’s war has also created the world’s largest displacement crisis. According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 10.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes since the fighting began. More than 2 million of these have fled to neighboring countries.