At least 124 people were killed in attack by the Sudanese paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a village south of Sudan’s capital Khartoum on Friday, activists and doctors say, which, if confirmed, marks one of the deadliest incidents in a civil war that shows no signs of abating.
The RSF has been battling the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for control of the country since April last year. Both forces have been accused of killing civilians.
The incident follows the defection of the RSF commander in Al-Jazirah, the region where the massacre allegedly took place. Since then RSF attacks have escalated, reports say.
A member of the Resistance Committees, a grassroots network formed by Sudanese residents, told CNN that over 200 other civilians were injured in the attack on Al-Sareeha village, with an additional 150 detained by the RSF.
The true number of victims may be “significantly higher,” the activist said, citing difficulties in documentation due to communication barriers. The activist requested anonymity on safety grounds.
“The RSF militia has confiscated all Starlink devices — the only means of communication available to civilians,” they said. The activist also noted that more than 30 villages in the eastern Al-Jazirah region have been abandoned as residents flee retaliatory militia attacks.
The Sudan Doctors Network has also reported on mass killings in the same village, saying that RSF forces “committed a massacre against civilians in Al-Sareeha” resulting in 124 deaths, numerous injuries, and the displacement of hundreds in attacks on Friday.
CNN cannot independently verify the incident, or the numbers reported, as media teams are not permitted in the area.
CNN has reached out to the RSF for comment but has not received an immediate response.
The UN says the fighting between the SAF and the RSF has triggered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Tens of thousands have died and millions have been displaced.
CNN reporting last year exposed an RSF-led campaign to enslave men and women, and other atrocities by the paramilitary group and its allied militias in Sudan’s western Darfur region – an area already scarred by what has been widely described as the 21st century’s first genocide.
