Hundreds killed in days as war in Sudan surges

DAKAR, Senegal — A major surge in fighting in Sudan has taken a searing toll on civilians, killing hundreds of people in aerial bombings and revenge attacks in the past week, as Africa’s largest war shifts into a higher gear after the end of seasonal rains.

Territory has changed hands and retreating fighters have sexually assaulted, kidnapped and killed villagers as they have moved through contested countryside, according to activists, democracy groups and accounts on social media.

And Sudan’s military, after losing control of vast areas of Sudan, has finally seemed to regain the advantage over the Rapid Support Forces, the powerful paramilitary group it has been battling for the past 18 months. Both sides face a barrage of war crimes accusations from the United States and rights groups.

More than 10 million have been forced from their homes, famine is raging, and diseases like cholera and dengue fever are rapidly spreading.

Diplomatic efforts to end the war have stalled, with neither side showing much willingness to compromise on anything, much less reach a cease-fire. Support is growing among activists, peacekeeping experts and human rights groups for the United Nations to deploy a mission to protect civilians.

“We fear it is on the road to becoming a repeat of the 1994 Rwanda genocide,” Roméo Dallaire, who led the U.N. mission in Rwanda during the genocide, wrote in Foreign Policy on Friday.

At least 300 civilians were killed when fighters rampaged through Tambul village, said Elmubir Mahmoud, the secretary-general of the Al Jazeera Conference, a volunteer group in the state. Gunmen looted homes, took hostages and sexually assaulted women, he said. Fifty more civilians were killed in a nearby village Friday morning, he added, and 200 were wounded.

“The situation is very tragic,” Mahmoud said.

Shelling in Khartoum, the capital, killed at least 24 people this past week, according to the Emergency Response Rooms, a youth-led volunteer group. Fighting also raged in the western region of Darfur, both around the besieged city of El Fasher in North Darfur and in the deserts to the north, along the border with Libya and Chad. Dozens of people were killed in the state in attacks on displacement camps, hospitals and markets, according to the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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