CAIRO/DUBAI: The Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces attacked a village in Gezira State on Wednesday, killing at least 100 people, according to local activists.
If confirmed, the attack would be the latest in a string of dozens of attacks by RSF soldiers on small villages across the farming state after it took control of the capital Wad Madani in December.
A telecommunications blackout prevented Reuters immediately reaching medics or residents to verify the death toll.
“Wad Alnoura village ... witnessed a genocide on Wednesday after the RSF attacked twice, killing up to 100 people,” the pro-democracy Wad Madani Resistance Committee said in a statement on social media late on Wednesday.
Later it put the number of dead in the hundreds, and said the Sudanese army had not heeded a request for help.
The RSF began fighting the army in April 2023 after disputes over the integration of the two forces, and has since taken over the capital Khartoum and most of western Sudan. It is now seeking to advance into the center, as United Nations agencies say the people of Sudan are at “imminent risk of famine.”
In a statement on Wednesday, the RSF said it had attacked army and allied militia bases around Wad Alnoura but did not acknowledge any civilian casualties.
But the Wad Madani Resistance Committee accused it of using heavy artillery against civilians, looting, and driving women and children to seek refuge in the nearby town of Managil.
It shared photos of dozens of bodies wrapped for burial in an open square among large crowds of men.
“The people of Wad Alnoura called on the army to rescue them, but they shamefully did not respond,” the committee said.
The army-aligned Transitional Sovereign Council condemned the attack.
“These are criminal acts that reflect the systematic behavior of these militias in targeting civilians,” it said in a statement.
Sudan’s RSF kills at least 100 in attack on village, activists say
Sudan’s RSF kills at least 100 in attack on village, activists say
- Wad Alnoura village witnessed a genocide on Wednesday after the RSF attacked twice, killing up to 100 people
Syria arrests group behind Mezzeh airport attacks, weapons traced to Hezbollah
- Authorities seized a number of drones the group was preparing to use in further operations
DAMASCUS: Syria said on Sunday it had detained a group behind recent rocket attacks on the Mezzeh military airport in Damascus, with investigators tracing the weapons to Iran-backed Hezbollah.
The interior ministry said security units arrested all members of the group, which it said had carried out several strikes on the airport in recent months, after surveillance of suspected launch sites in several areas of the capital.
The weapons used in the attacks originated from Lebanon’s Hezbollah, an ally of former President Bashar Assad that once had a large military presence across Syria supporting Assad’s army, the ministry said.
Hezbollah denied the allegations and said it had no activity or ties with any group inside Syria. Authorities said they also seized a number of drones the group was preparing to use in further operations.
The ministry said only that the detainees had links to unidentified “foreign entities,” without mentioning Hezbollah or Iran.
Reuters reported in November that Washington was planning to establish a military presence at an air base in Damascus to help enable a security pact that Washington is brokering between Syria and Israel. The government denied the report.
Security sources say Hezbollah left behind weapons stockpiles, including drones, in parts of Syria after withdrawing its forces following the collapse of Assad’s rule.
