Sudan: scores of villagers killed by RSF, prompting growing fears of genocide

At least 100 people were killed, and dozens were injured in a village in Sudan’s Gezira province after an attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Wednesday (5 June), which comes only days after a senior UN official warned that the situation in the conflict-torn country bore “all the marks of risk of genocide.”

Women, children, and elderly were among those killed in the attacks by the paramilitary force, according to Mini Arko Minawi, the governor of Darfur province. The Madani Resistance Committee, a grassroots group set up to protect residents in the capital city of Gezira, said that the RSF, which has been fighting the Sudanese army for over a year, used heavy artillery to besiege and attack the village, displacing residents, including women and children, to other parts of the district of al-Manaqil. The Sudanese transitional government in a statement condemned the RSF’s attacks and called for the international community to hold the paramilitary group accountable.

With the violence in Sudan escalating, calls are mounting on both the RSF and the Sudanese army to allow access by air workers to the people in need. “Time is running out for millions of people in Sudan who are at imminent risk of famine,” the United Nations and humanitarian organizations warned this week in a joint statement. “Despite the tremendous needs, aid workers continue to face systematic obstructions and deliberate denials of access by parties to the conflict.” UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Alice Nderitu, joined the chorus of outrage over the situation, saying “civilians are being attacked and killed because of the color of their skin, because of their ethnicity, because of who they are,” whereby this situation bore “all the marks of risk of genocide.”