The world has condemned the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces after a video emerged showing a mass grave in a village in Sudan. The village of Wad al-Noura has been under siege since Wednesday, and yesterday a video emerged of the residents burying dozens of bodies. Pro-democracy activists said more than 100 people were killed.
The attack was the largest 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.
Battles have been taking place in the Western City of Al Fasher in North Darfur as the army and the RSF are fighting for control of the country. The RSF has taken control of nearly all the other main cities in the state and fighting is believed to include local armed groups who have abandoned neutrality and sided with the army.
UN Humanitarian Coordinator Clementine Nkweta-Salami in a statement called for an investigation into the attack in Wad al-Noura village in Gezira State in central Sudan. “Even by the tragic standards of Sudan’s conflict, the images emerging from Wad Al-Noura are heartbreaking,” she said.
She referenced images shared on social media by the Wad Madani Resistance Committee, which has been documenting these attacks. The photos depicted numerous victims prepared for burial. On Thursday, the committee reported that 104 people were killed and hundreds injured in Wad al-Noura, and warned that the RSF was advancing towards other villages.
Al Fasher has been a key supply route for Aid but the conflict means relief is no longer being distributed there and thousands of people are believed to be facing water shortage. The UN says 18 million Sudanese people are facing severe hunger, with more than 8 million displaced according to the Refugee Agency.
On Thursday, the RSF reported that it had attacked army and allied militia bases around Wad al-Noura, resulting in the loss of eight soldiers, and mentioned that inaccurate reports about the incident were circulating. The Wad Madani Resistance Committee had accused the RSF on Wednesday of using heavy artillery against civilians, looting, and forcing women and children to flee to the nearby town of Managil.
The committee criticized the army for not responding to the residents’ pleas for help. The army-aligned Transitional Sovereign Council condemned the attack, calling it a criminal act that reflects the militias’ systematic targeting of civilians. Estimates show that between 14000 to 150000 people have been killed in the conflict in Sudan.
In April 2023, Sudan’s civil war erupted due to a rivalry between Sudan’s army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and his deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, escalating into a full-scale conflict.
Initially concentrated around the capital, Khartoum, the fighting quickly spread to other regions, including Darfur in the southwest, where it took on an interethnic dimension as old rivalries from a previous war that began in 2003 resurfaced. The RSF, which originated from the Janjaweed—a force accused of killing thousands of non-Arabs in Darfur during a conflict that concluded with a 2020 peace deal—has played a significant role in the current fighting.
Over the past 14 months, the war has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands, widespread destruction of infrastructure, and severe damage to Sudan’s economy. Approximately 8.3 million people have been displaced, many fleeing to neighboring Chad and South Sudan, and there is a growing threat of hunger and starvation. The United Nations recently warned that millions of people in Sudan are at imminent risk of famine, displacement, bombardments, and being cut off from humanitarian aid.
The RSF now controls most of western Sudan and is attempting to move towards the country’s center. Renewed fighting has been reported in the western city of El Fasher, with both sides employing heavy weaponry and artillery. Claire Nicolet, the head of emergency response in Sudan for Doctors Without Borders, described the conflict as having a devastating impact on the population.
