More than 120 civilians have been killed by Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary in a multi-day attack denounced by the United Nations and aid groups.
Going on a five-day rampage in the state of Gezira last week, RSF fighters indiscriminately shot at residents, committed sexual violence, looted homes and markets, and set farms alight, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs said in a statement on Sunday.
Several villages were attacked in the north and east, forcing thousands of families to flee to other parts of the state, it added.
The town of Al-Sireha in Gezira's north experienced the worst of the violence on Friday, when at least 124 people were killed and 200 were injured, according to the Sudanese Doctors' Union.
The UN said humanitarian agencies were still working to establish the overall number of civilian casualties.
"I am shocked and deeply appalled that human rights violations of the kind witnessed in Darfur last year — such as rape, targeted attacks, sexual violence, and mass killings — are being repeated in Al Jazirah state," Clementine Nkweta-Salami, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, said.
"These are atrocious crimes.
"Attacking civilians, civilian objects, and public infrastructure is prohibited by international humanitarian law. It is unacceptable and must stop immediately."
The Sudanese Doctors Union called on the UN Security Council to pressure the RSF to open "safe corridors" to enable the delivery of aid to people in impacted villages.
More than 11 million people displaced
Sudan's civil war has claimed more than 24,800 lives since fighting broke out between the RSF and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in April last year. Medics say the unreported death toll could be up to 150,000.
The recent attack was one of the deadliest incidents involving civilians in the 18-month conflict, which began when tensions between the RSF and the army, which have previously shared power, erupted into open conflict at a time when Sudan should have been transitioning to civilian rule after a 2021 coup.
Fighting was initially concentrated around the capital Khartoum and the long-restive region of Darfur but spread across the country.
[DW]More than 11 million people have been displaced and an estimated 24 million remain are in need of assistance in what the UN has called one of the world's worst humanitarian crises but a "forgotten" war.
The data from the International Organization for Migration's (IOM) tracking matrix latest showed at least 46,500 people had been displaced in Gezira in the past week.
Pro-democracy activists said the spree of attacks were undertaken as revenge killings in response to the surrender of high-ranking RSF officer Abuagla Keikal — a state local — to the army last Sunday.
"The killings and appalling human rights violations in Gezira province intensify the unacceptable human toll this conflict has taken on the people of Sudan," IOM director-general Amy Pope said.
The Coordination of Civilian Democratic Forces, an alliance of pro-democracy parties and groups, also accused the RSF of storming villages and opening fire on civilians as well as rounding up and mistreating "a large number of residents".
In a statement, the alliance held the RSF "responsible for these massive violations" and called for holding the perpetrators accountable.
The army and RSF did not immediately respond to media requests for comment.
Conflict marked by rife sexual violence
The RSF was born out of Arab militias, commonly known as Janjaweed, mobilised by ex-Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir against populations in Darfur that identify as central or east African.
At the time, the Janjaweed, which still aids the RSF, was accused of mass killings, rapes and other atrocities, and Darfur became synonymous with genocide.
International advocacy groups have repeatedly raised concerns about the disproportionate impact on women and girls through the war, which has seen both warring sides wield sexual violence as a weapon to terrorise communities.
Sudan's Combating Violence Against Women Unit, a government body, said it had received reports of RSF soldiers raping women in Gezira villages as a tactic to humiliate the men and drive people out of the area.
A report by Human Rights Watch released in July documented females aged nine to at least 60 across three Sudanese cities being subjected to sexual violence, rape and gang rape on a widespread scale since the war began.
It also found men and boys had been raped, including in detention.
Hala Al-Karib, the regional director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA), told Sudanese media in February more than 70 per cent of cases occurred as collective assaults in front of the victims' families.
According to UN commissioner for human rights Volker Turk, the RSF has committed about 80 per cent of the rapes.
Only one in every 20 cases, however, is said to be reported.
Unwanted pregnancies and post-rape psychological trauma have been linked to an increased risk of suicide among women in Sudan, with at least three documented cases between April and July and several recorded suicide attempts.
There have also been reports of women taking their own lives to escape sexual violence. One such account circulated on social media on Saturday said more than 130 women had been driven to mass suicide to avoid being raped by RSF militia last week.
ABC/wires
