Sudan: Dozens killed by RSF on ethnic basis in Darfur

Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) killed 56 civilians in a series of attacks on a town in Darfur along the road to the city of el-Fasher.

Activists from a local resistance committee said the killings in Um Kadadah were carried out on Thursday and Friday "on an ethnic basis".

Um Kadadah, which lies around 180km east of el-Fasher - the last city in Darfur held by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) - was recaptured by the RSF on Thursday.

The RSF has been at war with the SAF since April 2023 in a conflict that has displaced more than 10 million people and left over 12 million facing high levels of acute food insecurity.

The army retains control over large swathes of territory in the east and north, while paramilitaries hold most of Darfur and parts of the south.

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The latest killings in Darfur come after more than 100 people - including 20 children - were reported by the UN to have been killed during the RSF's siege of el-Fasher and two nearby famine-hit camps.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the RSF launched "coordinated ground and aerial assaults" on el-Fasher and the Zamzam and Abu Shouk displacement camps on Friday.

Last year, a report by the UN's independent international fact-finding mission on Sudan found that both warring parties had committed a range of war crimes, including acts of sexual violence. 

The mission included visits to Chad, Kenya and Uganda, as well as 182 first-hand testimonies from survivors, family members and eyewitnesses. 

Middle East Eye has previously reported on how women across the Darfur region - some as young as 12 - have been the victims of sexual assault perpetrated by men wearing RSF uniforms.

middleeasteye.net