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More than 235 fires broke out in towns and villages across the country, and the fires were likely man made, satellite images and open source reporting show.

Hundreds of towns and villages across Sudan have been burned to the ground, and the fires were likely man-made, satellite images and open-source reporting show — the result of a brutal civil war that has been raging in the northeast African nation for over a year.

Bitter fighting between the forces of two rival generals has laid waste to much of the country, thousands have been slaughtered, and 10 million people have been driven from their homes, creating the world’s largest displacement crisis, according to the United Nations migration agency.

And as the fighting has spread, homes and aid camps have been burned out by fires that have been started intentionally, experts and analysts say.

Sudanese refugees at their makeshift shelters at a relocation camp near Adre, Chad. Over 600,000 new refugees have crossed the border from Darfur into Chad. Dan Kitwood / Getty Images“When we see reports of fighting coinciding with clusters of fires, it indicates that fire may be being used as a weapon of war,” Mark Snoeck, an open source investigator, told NBC News on Monday.  

More than 50 settlements have burned repeatedly, suggesting “intent” and possible forced displacement, added Snoeck, who along with his colleagues has been tracking the blazes by satellite at the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR), a nonprofit organization dedicated to exposing rights abuses and war crimes. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/sudan-war-leaves-towns-villages-burned-down-rcna156920

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