(Port Sudan) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “strongly condemns” the attack carried out by a paramilitary group against a village in Sudan which allegedly left “more than 100 dead,” his spokesperson said Thursday in a communicated.
“The Secretary-General strongly condemns the attack allegedly carried out by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on the village of Wad al-Noura, in al-Jazeera State, which reportedly left more than 100 people dead,” said Stéphane Dujarric, calling on the parties to the conflict to refrain from any attacks against civilians.
According to pro-democracy activists, the RSF attacked this village in the center of the country twice with heavy artillery on Wednesday, leaving more than 100 dead and hundreds injured.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been in the grip of a war between the army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, and the FSR paramilitaries of his former deputy turned rival, General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo.
Antonio Guterres is “deeply concerned about the immense suffering of the Sudanese people due to the continuation of hostilities,” his spokesperson insisted Thursday, repeating his call to “silence the guns across Sudan and engage in path to lasting peace.
The UN humanitarian coordinator in the country, Clémentine Nkweta-Salami, said she was “shocked by reports of violent attacks and a large number of victims” in this village.
“The images reaching us from Wad al-Noura are terrible,” she lamented.
I am horrified by reports that at least 35 children were killed and more than 20 others injured in the attack on the village.
Catherine Russell, patron of UNICEF, in a press release
Reporting “more than 104 deaths” as well as “hundreds of injured”, the Madani resistance committee, a mutual aid network between residents, assured Thursday that it had established this report on the basis of “preliminary communication with the inhabitants of the village » located in al-Jazeera State, central Sudan.
Committee activists also posted images on social networks showing a row of white shrouds arranged on a plot of land. They claim that the paramilitaries “invaded the village”, causing many residents to flee.
PHOTO PROVIDED TO AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
“The images reaching us from Wad al-Noura are terrible,” lamented the UN humanitarian coordinator in the country, Clémentine Nkweta-Salami.
They also assured that the Sudanese army – at war with the RSF – had been called for help by the villagers of Wad al-Noura, but that it had not intervened.
In just over a year, the war between rival generals in Sudan has left tens of thousands dead, with some estimates going as high as “150,000” victims, according to the US envoy for Sudan, Tom Perriello. .
Across the country, and even in the capital Khartoum, fighting continues daily between the army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane and the FSR paramilitaries, under the leadership of General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo.
In just over a year, the war between these two rivals in Sudan has left tens of thousands dead, with some estimates even going as high as “150,000” victims, according to the American envoy for Sudan, Tom Perriello. .
“Egregious violations”
Both sides have been accused of war crimes, including targeting civilians, indiscriminately shelling residential areas and engaging in looting or blocking vital humanitarian aid.
Emergency Lawyers, a group of Sudanese lawyers who document atrocities committed since the start of the war, saw the Wad al-Noura attack as “a painful example of the flagrant human rights violations” committed in this conflict.
The organization denounced a “war crime” against X.
Accused of looting, but also of sexual and ethnic violence, the RSF have repeatedly besieged and attacked entire villages across the country.
In a statement released late Wednesday, the paramilitaries said they attacked three army camps in the Wad al-Noura region and clashed with their rivals “outside” the populated area.
If the army has not commented on these events, the Sovereign Transitional Council, an institution chaired by General Burhane, denounced a “horrible massacre against defenseless civilians”.
Acute malnutrition and starvation
On Thursday the International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned that the number of internally displaced people in the country could “exceed 10 million” in the coming days.
Since the start of the conflict, more than seven million people have fled their homes to seek refuge elsewhere in Sudan – which already had 2.8 million people displaced over decades of wars that have ravaged the country.
“The world’s worst internal displacement crisis continues to worsen, with famine on the horizon and disease adding to the devastation caused by the conflict,” IOM said in its statement.
Across the country, 70% of displaced people are “now trying to survive in areas threatened by famine,” warns the UN agency.
Some 18 million people suffer from hunger and 3.6 million children from acute malnutrition, according to UN agencies.
In the current context, the Dutch think tank Clingendael Institute estimates that by the end of September 2.5 million people could die if the humanitarian crisis continues.
Or “around 15% of the population of Darfur and Kordofan”, vast regions of the West and South torn apart by particularly violent fighting, according to the same source.