UN requests investigation: Sudanese army threatens severe response to RSF attack on village

Sudan’s army declared on Thursday that it will carry out a “severe retaliation” against the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group, for attacking a village the previous day, which pro-democracy activists claimed resulted in the deaths of over a hundred people.

Following their takeover of Wad Madani, the state’s capital, in December, RSF soldiers launched hundreds of attacks on tiny towns around the farming state, this one being the biggest.

The remarks made by Army Chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan came after local activists said that the army had ignored their Wednesday requests for assistance.

A request for comment from the army was not answered.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric stated that Antonio Guterres, the secretary-general, “strongly condemned” the attack.

“The Secretary-General urges all parties to refrain from any attacks that could harm civilians or damage civilian infrastructure,” Dujarric stated in a statement.
“The Secretary-General expresses his deep concern regarding the immense suffering of the Sudanese population as a result of the continued hostilities,” he stated. “He stresses that it is high time for all parties to silence their guns across Sudan and commit to a path towards sustainable peace.”

The incident in the village of Wad al-Noura in Gezira State, central Sudan, prompted a request for an investigation on Thursday from the top U.N. representative in Sudan.

The photographs coming out of Wad Al-Noura are heartbreaking, even by the terrible standards of the violence in Sudan, according to a statement released by U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator Clementine Nkweta-Salami.

She referenced images from the Wad Madani Resistance Committee’s social media posts, which the group has been using to document these atrocities and which it said showed scores of bodies being wrapped up for burial.

The committee announced on Thursday that the RSF was advancing on additional villages and that 104 people had died and hundreds had been injured in Wad al-Noura.

The committee reported late on Wednesday that “Wad al-Noura village… witnessed a genocide on Wednesday after the RSF attacked twice.”
Reuters was unable to confirm the details by contacting residents or medics due to a telecommunications blackout.

Following disagreements over the two forces’ integration, the RSF and army started fighting in April 2023. Since then, the RSF has taken control of most of western Sudan and the capital city of Khartoum. With reports from United Nations agencies stating that the people of Sudan face “imminently risk of famine,” it is now attempting to advance into the center.

The resistance group in Karari, a region north of the city under army control, claimed 22 lives due to artillery fire on Thursday and attributed it to the RSF. According to eyewitnesses, the fire originated in Bahri, which is under RSF control, across the Nile.

The RSF said in a statement on Thursday that it had targeted army and affiliated militia sites near Wad al-Noura, resulting in the deaths of eight troops, and that false information had been spreading about the incident.

On Wednesday, the Wad Madani Resistance Committee charged that the RSF had occupied residential areas with heavy artillery, looted, and forced women and children to seek safety in the adjacent town of Managil.

“The people of Wad al-Noura called on the army to rescue them, but they shamefully did not respond,” according to the committee.

The attack was denounced by the army-aligned Transitional Sovereign Council.
“These are criminal acts that reflect the systematic behaviour of these militias in targeting civilians,” it stated in a statement.