Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) reportedly killed at least 85 people in one week during attacks south of the capital, Khartoum, according to an activist group on Wednesday.
The Sudanese resistance committee stated, “For the seventh consecutive day, the Janjaweed militias continue their violent attacks on villages… west of Jebel Awliya, resulting in the deaths of more than 85 people and the injury of dozens,” referring to the RSF by the name of its precursor.
Additionally, a volunteer legal group known as The Emergency Lawyers reported that the RSF attacked more than 15 villages south of Khartoum, resulting in dozens of fatalities and hundreds of injuries.
The RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has been in conflict with the army since April 2023. The army, under the leadership of Sudan’s de facto ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, declared last Thursday that it had regained full control of Khartoum, a day after Burhan announced the capital had been “liberated” from RSF forces.
On Sunday, Daglo acknowledged that the RSF had withdrawn from Khartoum following weeks of intensive fighting with the army.
The ongoing conflict has led to what the United Nations describes as the world’s worst hunger and displacement crises. More than 12 million people have been displaced, tens of thousands have been killed, and a UN-backed assessment has declared a famine in certain regions of the country.
Despite the army’s control of Khartoum, Sudan remains largely divided due to the war; the army dominates the eastern and northern regions, while the RSF maintains control over most of the extensive Darfur region in the west and parts of the south.
