According to human rights organizations, at least 127 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Sudan on Monday and Tuesday. The conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) escalated further after efforts to reach a ceasefire stalled.
The army increased its airstrikes on RSF-controlled areas, while the RSF used artillery and raided villages. “On Monday, barrel bombs hit the market in the city of Kabkabiya,” said the pro-democracy Al-Fashir Resistance Committee. Other groups spoke of more than 100 dead. Pictures showed a mass grave and destroyed market stalls.
On Tuesday, the RSF attacked an army-controlled sector in Omdurman, residents reported. At least 20 people died, 14 of them on a bus. In total, the army reported 65 deaths.
The government of the affected state of Khartoum is on the side of the de facto ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. Since April 2023, its troops have been engaged in a bloody power struggle with the paramilitary RSF, its former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo and allied Arab militias. Both sides of the conflict – but especially the RSF – are accused of serious human rights violations, sexual violence and arbitrary shootings of civilians. The RSF is also accused of ethnic displacement in the Darfur region.
According to the UN, around twelve million people have been displaced by the ongoing conflict and are on the run within Sudan or in neighboring countries. There is also a risk of famine in parts of the country. Sudan has a population of around 50 million and, according to the United Nations, more than 30 million people there are in need of aid.
