Sudanese pro-democracy activists say Sudanese paramilitary forces have launched a gun attack on a village in Sudan’s main agricultural region, killing at least 104 people, including dozens of children.
The circumstances of Wednesday’s attack in Wad al-Noura, a village 70 miles south of the capital, Khartoum, are disputed.
But the high death toll, as well as images of mass burials that circulated on social media Thursday and were confirmed by The New York Times, drew international condemnation and made the attack the latest flashpoint in the conflict. Sudan’s brutal war continues for a year.
“Even by the tragic standards of Sudan’s conflict, the images from the massacre in Wadnora are heartbreaking,” Clementine Ngueita Salami, a senior UN official in Sudan, said in a statement.
“The world is watching,” British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said. Wrote on social media“Those responsible will be held accountable.”
Yet, since Sudan descended into war, it has committed countless atrocities with little accountability. Disastrous Civil War Just over a year ago, fighting broke out between the national army and a powerful paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces.
With phone lines down in Al Jazeera province, where Wadnora is located, Sudanese have been relying on videos and accounts from local activists for the latest on the mass casualties.
A video shared online and geolocated by The New York Times showed at least five Rapid Support Forces vehicles lined up on a road about a half-mile from Vadnora on Wednesday.
The gunman can be seen standing behind a stationary vehicle, firing machine guns across an open field at the village. The video lasts about five minutes with constant gunfire.
The video’s narrator said local residents blocked access to the village to prevent the militants from entering. But the militants did not appear to have been shot.
However Separate video Wade Nora sent a signal from inside the village that some form of armed defense had been organized. In the video, a villager pleaded for help as gunfire rang out outside.
“The village is under siege,” the man said. “Save Walder Nora.”
The local resistance committee, part of a national network of pro-democracy groups, called the incident a massacre and released a video on Thursday showing at least 50 bodies covered with cloth being laid out for burial in the village.
The videos and photos have been verified by The New York Times and the Sudan Witness Project of the Information Recovery Center, a nonprofit that monitors the conflict and documents potential war crimes.
The resistance council said at least 104 people had been killed and accused the state army of failing to save them. “The people of Wad Nora called on the army to save them but shamefully, the army did not respond.”
The Rapid Support Forces disputed that account. In a statement, the force acknowledged that its troops had fired on Wad Nora but said they were attacking military positions around the village and had lost eight soldiers in the fighting.
UNICEF head Catherine Russell said in a statement she was “horrified” by reports that at least 35 children had died and 20 injured in the violence, and called on the warring parties to abide by international law.
Sudan’s army chief of staff, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, visited villagers wounded in the attack on Thursday. Speaking at a hospital in the nearby town of Manajir, he said Sudan’s military would give a “harsh response” to the killings by the Rapid Security Forces.
The village is located in an agricultural area that was once the sultan’s granary but is now a battlefield.
RSF captures Wad MadaniLast December, Sudanese troops scored a series of stunning victories on Jazira Island, the capital of Al-Jazeera province, putting Sudanese forces at a disadvantage.
The military has been trying to retake Al Jazeera in a massive counteroffensive in recent months. Wadnura is about 20 miles from the nearest front line.
In the western Darfur region, rapid security forces have surrounded El Fasher, the Sudanese army’s last stronghold in Darfur, raising fears that an all-out war in the city could spark genocide or worsen a starvation crisis that aid workers say threatens to turn into famine.
The RSF has received weapons and other UAE supportIt is its main foreign backer, according to U.S. and U.N. officials. On Thursday, the United States imposed new sanctions over the Sudanese conflict. Seven companies based in the UAE.
Abdalrahman Altayeb contributed to this article in Port Sudan, Sudan. Video from Edit Enara Tiefentheller
