Sudan’s paramilitary fighters kill 85 people in attack on central village, residents say
Fighters from Sudan’s paramilitary group rampaged through a central village, looting and burning and killing at least 85 people, including women and children.
Fighters from Sudan’s paramilitary group rampaged through a central village, looting and burning and killing at least 85 people, including women and children, authorities and residents said Saturday, the latest atrocity in the country’s 18-month devastating conflict.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces began attacking Galgani in the central province of Sennar late in July and last week RSF fighters “indiscriminately opened fire on the village’s unarmed residents” after they resisted attempts to abduct and sexually assault women and girls, Sudan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. More than 150 villagers were wounded, it said.
The RSF has been repeatedly accused of massacres, rapes and other gross violations across the country since the war started in April last year, when simmering tensions between the military and the group exploded into open fighting in the capital Khartoum and elsewhere.
Describing the hourslong attack, three residents said hundreds of RSF fighters stormed the village on Thursday, looting and burning houses and public properties.
The offensive came after the residents put up resistance and repelled an attack by a small group of RSF fighters, according to a health care worker at the local medical center who spoke to The Associated Press.
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