Paramilitary attack in Sudan claims 20 lives – Activists
A local activists’ committee revealed that Sudanese paramilitary forces perpetrated an attack resulting in the deaths of at least 20 individuals in a village situated south of Khartoum, the capital, as reported on Sunday.
The statement from the local resistance committee, a faction amongst numerous pro-democracy groups coordinating aid, cited the assault on Um Adam village, located 150 kilometers (93 miles) away from the city, executed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Saturday.
Sudan has been embroiled in conflict since April 15 last year, between the military led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF, under the command of former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
This strife has led to devastating consequences, with thousands of casualties, including up to 15,000 in the war-torn Darfur region, and the displacement of over 8.5 million people, severely crippling Sudan’s infrastructure and pushing the nation towards famine.
According to the statement, Saturday’s attack inflicted injuries on “over 200 individuals with varying degrees of severity, resulting in more than 20 fatalities, although not all casualties were accounted for.” The overwhelmed Manaqil hospital, situated 80 kilometers away, confirmed receiving 200 wounded individuals, some arriving too late for treatment, exacerbating the dire shortage of medical supplies and personnel.
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Moreover, with over 70% of Sudan’s health facilities non-operational, the UN reported that the remaining few are overwhelmed, receiving patients well beyond their capacity with scarce resources.
Accusations of war crimes have been leveled against both parties involved in the conflict, including allegations of targeting civilians, indiscriminate shelling of residential areas, looting, and hindering aid efforts.
Since December, the RSF, after assuming control of Al-Jazira state south of Khartoum, has intensified its siege on villages like Um Adam. A report by the UK-based Centre for Information Resilience revealed that by March, at least 108 villages and settlements across Sudan had been either partially or completely destroyed by fire, exacerbating the already dire humanitarian crisis.
