35 children among those killed in latest Sudan civil war carnage, U.N. says

Johannesburg — The United Nations confirmed on Thursday that 35 children were among the victims of one of the deadliest attacks so far in the civil war that destroyed Sudan for more than a year. Eyewitnesses said the brutal attack left up to 200 people dead in the village of Wad Al-Noora in central Sudan’s Gezira state.

Sudan’s army has promised a strong response against rival paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces, which it accuses of carrying out a “massacre of civilians”.

Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudan’s army chief and president, said his troops would take action over the incident.

The RSF denied carrying out a massacre, but acknowledged conducting military operations near the city.

Local authorities initially said more than 100 people were shot on Wednesday in Wad Al-Noora, with later reports saying the death toll could be as high as 200. Many more people are believed to be injured.

Videos on social media, which could not be independently verified, show what is said to be the aftermath of the attack, with rows of bodies lined up and ready for burial.

Sudan’s military government, led by al-Burhan, called for international condemnation of the attack.

A man-made humanitarian crisis and allegations of war crimes

More than a year after the start of the war in Sudan, around half of the country’s population — around 25 million people — are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. In a worst-case scenario, aid agencies say 4 million children could be facing acute malnutrition and 2.5 million could die of hunger.

It is a man-made humanitarian disaster that aid agencies say has been largely ignored by the world amid ongoing wars in the country. Gaza It is Ukraine.

A recent report by Human Rights Watch states that an act of genocide may have been committed in the city of El Geneina in West Darfur. The report establishes allegations of alleged ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity committed against the Massalit and non-Arab ethnic communities in the city by RSF paramilitary forces and their Arab allies.

HRW called for international sanctions against RSF leader Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, widely known as Hemedti.

One report details an attack on June 15, 2023, which HRW claims involved RSF and allied forces opening fire on a convoy of civilians fleeing El Geneina, allegedly killing 12 children and five adults from two families, before throw their bodies “into the river and their belongings after them.”

There is a long and bloody history of struggles over resources in Sudan and the surrounding region. Former Sudanese president Omar el Bashir, who was deposed by the army in 2019, have regularly exploited these conflicts, fanning the flames of ethnic violence for political gain.

His government created Arab militias in the early 2000s to suppress rebellions by non-Arab farming and pastoralist communities. These Arab militias became known as the Janjaweed, and later the paramilitary group RSF emerged from their ranks.

Sudan’s civil war has become a global proxy war

Civil war broke out last year, starting as a power struggle between al-Burhan and Hemedti, but has morphed into a broader proxy war as regional and foreign players compete for influence and resources.

Saudi Arabia and Egypt support al-Burhan’s government, and he has recently worked to strengthen ties with Iran and Russia.

Humanitarian groups and regional analysts say the UAE and Russia have been supplying weapons and resources to the RSF. UAE authorities have repeatedly denied these allegations.

In the most significant recent development, it appears almost certain that a deal is about to be signed between Moscow and al-Burhan’s government to grant Russia a 25-year port on the Red Sea in exchange for military equipment.

Russia has long sought access to the strategic Red Sea, with analysts saying it would expect to be offered considerable military equipment in exchange for what is understood to be a small port base where Russia could station four warships and around 300 Russian troops. .

The two generals’ battle for control of their country’s resources has become a proxy war for the main global powers vying for access to gold mines and the Red Sea. Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, one of the most populous cities on the African continent, is now described as a battlefield in a country whose people are on the brink of famine.