RSF kills scores in retaliatory village attacks, sources say

July 24, 2025 (EL OBEID, North Kordofan) – Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have killed at least 68 people in attacks on several villages in West Kordofan state this week, according to a medical group and a local activist.

The violence in the area north of the city of Al-Nuhud was reportedly in retaliation for residents resisting the establishment of new RSF checkpoints.

The Sudan Doctors Network said in a statement on Thursday that attacks on the Barimah Rashid area alone killed 27 people and left 43 others with serious injuries. The group stated  that the RSF assaulted “unarmed civilians, including women, children, and the elderly, inside their homes.”

A separate death toll was reported by Salem Suleiman Al-Safi, an activist who monitors the conflict in the state. He told Sudan Tribune that RSF fighters killed at least 41 people on Wednesday after residents refused to allow them to set up a military presence in their villages.

The doctors’ network described the events as a “war crime and a crime against humanity” and called on the international community to designate the RSF as a terrorist organization to halt its violations.

The attacks are the latest in a series of large-scale assaults by the RSF on villages across the Kordofan region. War between the RSF and Sudan’s army erupted in April 2023, devastating the country and creating the world’s largest displacement crisis.

The RSF controls West Kordofan’s capital, Al-Fulah, and most of its major towns. The army holds the town of Babanusa and some key oil fields in the region.