At least 30 people were killed in Omdurman, Sudan’s sister city to the capital Khartoum, in a brutal assault blamed on the country’s notorious paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to officials and activist groups on Monday.
The Resistance Committees, a grassroots activist network, reported that RSF fighters stormed Salha, a southern district of Omdurman, on Sunday morning, abducting dozens of residents, including women. This assault marks yet another bloody chapter in a relentless series of attacks by the RSF this month.
Disturbing footage circulated online showed RSF-uniformed fighters corralling scores of men, some stripped half-naked into an open field, with several bodies strewn lifelessly across the ground.
RELATED STORIES
READ ALSO: Over 100 killed in brutal attacks on starving civilians in Sudan’s Darfur – UN confirms
In response, the RSF issued a statement in which it did not deny the killings but attempted to deflect blame, claiming that those depicted in the footage “are not affiliated with our forces in any way whatsoever.”
Watch a recent episode of The BreakDown podcast below and subscribe to our channel PanaGenius TV for latest episodes.
The Sudan War Monitor, a group dedicated to tracking the conflict, said it had geolocated the footage to approximately five kilometers (three miles) south of Omdurman Islamic University, an area still contested but largely under RSF control.
Sudan’s foreign ministry swiftly condemned the atrocities, calling on the international community to officially designate the RSF as a terrorist organization.
“This heinous crime, and the militia’s rhetoric about it, which reflects its contempt for human values, leave no justification for not branding the militia as a terrorist group,” the ministry declared in a statement released Monday.
Meanwhile, Sudan’s military continues its campaign to reclaim urban strongholds, having retaken most of the northern and western sectors of Omdurman in recent months. However, the RSF remains entrenched in pockets of the city’s southern districts.
READ ALSO: Sudan gripped by world’s worst humanitarian crisis ahead of war’s second anniversary — UN
This latest attack underscores the unrelenting violence in Sudan’s brutal war, which erupted in April 2023 following a breakdown in relations between the country’s military and the RSF, once uneasy partners.
Since the war’s onset, an estimated 24,000 people have been killed, a figure that many believe significantly underrepresents the true toll. The conflict has displaced about 13 million people, including four million who have fled across Sudan’s borders into neighboring countries. Much of the nation now teeters on the brink of famine.
The war has been defined by widespread atrocities, with the United Nations and various international human rights organizations documenting rampant mass rapes and ethnically driven massacres, crimes they say amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, particularly in the Darfur region.
Earlier this month, the RSF and allied militias unleashed a devastating, multi-day assault on the city of el-Fasher and the Zamzam and Abu Shouk displacement camps in North Darfur province, killing over 400 people, according to U.N. reports.
READ ALSO: U.S. revokes all South Sudanese visas – Rubio announces
