Death toll mounts in Sudan’s Al-Jazirah after RSF fresh retaliatory attacks
November 1, 2024 (EASTERN AL-JAZIRAH) – The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have continued their wave of retaliatory attacks in eastern Al-Jazirah state in central Sudan, leaving at least 18 people dead in the past 48 hours.
These attacks follow the defection of Abu Aqla Kikil, the former RSF commander in Al-Jazirah, who switched allegiance to the army in October. In response, the RSF has unleashed a campaign of violence in eastern and southern Al-Jazirah, resulting in dozens of deaths and displacing tens of thousands of residents.
According to the Al-Jazirah Conference, a civilian group formed after the RSF seized control of the state in December 2023, an RSF force attacked the village of Al-Faj Al-Bashir on Thursday, killing eight people and seriously wounding others.
In a separate statement, the Al-Jazirah Conference reported that the RSF imposed a tight siege on the village of Wad Al-Fadl on Wednesday, confining residents to mosques and killing six people. The RSF also looted shops and homes and set fire to the village hospital and several houses.
Further attacks on the villages of Al-Fawla Al-Afsa and Al-Nasrab resulted in two more deaths and several injuries.
The Al-Jazirah Conference condemned the “systematic killing and forced displacement” carried out by the RSF, characterizing the attacks as “ethnic cleansing and genocide.” They called on international human rights organizations to designate the RSF as a terrorist organization and urged the international community to pressure the RSF to cease its violence.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) recently reported that the number of people fleeing the violence in eastern Al-Jazirah has surpassed 119,000.
Human rights organizations estimate that nearly a thousand civilians have been killed and dozens of women subjected to sexual violence in the RSF attacks, which have also involved the burning of farms, looting of markets and homes, and disruption of communication networks.