RSF Paramilitary group kills 32 in a rampage in southern Sudan, activist group says

CAIRO (AP) — Sudan’s notorious paramilitary group rampaged through a village in the southern Kordofan region, which has become a key frontline in the country’s civil war, killing more than 30 people in a two-day offensive, an activist group said Thursday.

The Rapid Support Forces on Wednesday attacked Brima Rashid village, north of the key town of al-Nahud, which the paramilitaries seized earlier this year in West Kordofan province, said the Emergency Room in the area, an activist group tracking the war.

The group said it documented the killing of 32 people, including siblings, in the offensive which lasted until Thursday morning. More than 50 others were wounded, it said on its Facebook pages.

A spokesman for the RSF didn’t immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

The toll is up from 27 dead and 47 wounded reported early Wednesday by the Sudan Doctors’ Network, a medical group which also tracks the war.

In a statement, the network said RSF fighters “targeted unarmed civilians in their homes - including women, children, and the elderly - in a bloody scene reminiscent of the most horrific crimes against humanity.”

Sudan was plunged into a war in April 2023, when tensions between the Sudanese army RSF exploded with street battles in the capital, Khartoum that quickly spread across the country.

Kordofan region in southern Sudan has in recent months joined the Darfur city of el-Fasher as the key frontlines in the fighting between the miliary and the RSF.

The war killed more than 24,000 people, according to the United Nations, but activists and rights groups say the toll is likely much higher.

The war also created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. It has driven about 13 million people from their homes, including over 4 million who crossed into neighboring countries. Parts of Sudan have been pushed into famine.

The fighting has been marked by atrocities including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially in Darfur, according to the U.N. and international rights groups.

The fighting in Kordofan reportedly killed more than 300 people, including children and pregnant women, earlier this month, according to the United Nations Humanitarian Affairs Office.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/sudan-was-rfs-military-korofan-cb1192e92d1e250de696033568278e42