Sudan paramilitaries kill 56 over two days in Darfur town: activists

Sudan's paramilitaries killed 56 civilians over two days of attacks on a town they seized on the road to El-Fasher, the last major city in the Darfur region still in army hands, activists said Sunday.

The killings on Friday and Saturday targeted residents in Um Kadadah "on an ethnic basis", according to the local resistance committee, part of a network of volunteers coordinating aid across Sudan since the war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began on April 15, 2023.

The attacks on Um Kadadah, about 180 kilometres (112 miles) east of El-Fasher, came one day after RSF fighters said they took the town from army forces.

The RSF have stepped up attacks on North Darfur's besieged capital of El-Fasher since the army last month recaptured the Sudanese capital Khartoum, around 1,000 kilometres to the east.

The local committee shared a list of those killed in Um Kadadah and said that the RSF committed "widespread violations", "forcibly displaced" citizens from the town and shut down all telecommunications.

Victims included the town's hospital director, the committee said, adding that at least 14 people remained missing.

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- El-Fasher battle -

The committee's report came a day after the United Nations said more than 100 people were feared dead in RSF attacks on El-Fasher and two nearby famine-hit camps for displaced people -- Zamzam and Abou Shouk.

An army-aligned faction led by Darfur Governor Minni Minnawi on Sunday put the toll at more than four times that, but the figure could not be independently verified.

As of Saturday evening, activists in El-Fasher said the attacks on Zamzam camp since Friday had killed at least 46 civilians, including women and children, with many other victims yet to be identified.

Activists said Friday that the full extent of the damage in Zamzam remained unclear because of internet shutdowns and communications disruptions.

Adam Regal, spokesperson of the Darfur General Coordination of Camps for the Displaced and Refugees, told AFP that Zamzam and Abou Shouk remained under artillery shelling and an assault by RSF armed vehicles on Sunday.

The United States has sanctioned both sides in the war, saying the RSF has "committed genocide" in Darfur and the army has attacked civilians.

The conflict has essentially divided Sudan in two, with the army holding sway in the north and east, while the RSF controls most of Darfur and parts of the south.

The war has killed tens of thousands, uprooted more than 12 million and created what the International Rescue Committee described as "the biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded".