Sudanese committee speaks of “up to 100 dead” in attack on village

The committee said on Wednesday that the feared paramilitaries had “infiltrated the village”, leading to widespread displacement and dozens of casualties.

“Up to 100 people have been killed,” said the committee, one of hundreds of similar grassroots groups in Sudan, adding that it was “awaiting a confirmed number of dead and injured.”

On social media, the committee posted footage of a “mass grave” in the public square, showing rows of white shrouds spread out in a courtyard.

In just over a year, the war has killed tens of thousands of people, including up to 15,000 in a single town in West Darfur.

The total death toll from the war is still unclear, but some estimates put the number at as high as 150,000, according to US Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello.

The RSF has repeatedly besieged and attacked entire villages across the country and is notorious for large-scale looting and sexual and ethnic violence.

In a statement late Wednesday, the RSF said it had attacked three army camps in the Wad al-Noura region and clashed with the enemy “outside the city.”

Both the army and the RSF are accused of war crimes, including targeted attacks on civilians, indiscriminate shelling of residential areas, and looting or obstructing humanitarian aid.

The UN migration agency warned on Thursday that the number of internally displaced people in Sudan could “exceed the ten million mark” within a few days.

Since the war began, more than seven million people have fled their homes to other parts of Sudan. In addition, there are 2.8 million people who have already been forced to leave their homes as a result of previous conflicts in the war-torn country of 48 million inhabitants.

“The world’s worst internal displacement crisis continues to worsen, with the devastation caused by conflict compounded by the threat of famine and disease,” the International Organization for Migration said in a statement.

Across Sudan, 70 percent of displaced people are now “trying to survive in places where famine is imminent,” it says.

According to the UN, 18 million people suffer from acute hunger and 3.6 million children are acutely malnourished.

There has been widespread famine in Sudan for months. According to aid organizations, no famine could be officially declared due to a lack of data.

If the current humanitarian situation continues, according to recent estimates by the Dutch think tank Clingendael Institute, 2.5 million people could die of hunger by the end of September.

That figure is “about 15 percent of the population in Darfur and Kordofan,” the vast western and southern regions of the country where some of the worst fighting has taken place, the institute said.

The UN accuses both sides of “systematic obstruction and deliberate denial” of humanitarian access.

bha/ami