At least 31 people have been killed and 100 wounded in the southeastern Sudanese city of Sennar since Sunday, following a renewed assault by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to reports from Emergency Lawyers, a legal activist group monitoring civilian casualties and humanitarian violations.
The group stated that several parts of Sennar, including the main market, have been targeted by RSF artillery fire. This latest offensive comes as the RSF, which already controls most of Sennar and approximately half of Sudan, faces slowed progress in the southeast due to heavy rains hampering movement.
The ongoing conflict between the RSF and Sudan’s army has plunged the country into a humanitarian crisis, creating what is now considered the world’s largest hunger and internal displacement emergency. Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed, and much of Sudan’s infrastructure and economy lies in ruins.
Emergency Lawyers also reported that the Sudanese army had killed at least four people in al-Souki, a town near Sennar, during airstrikes. Additionally, RSF artillery strikes in el-Obeid, another contested town, resulted in one death and 17 injuries.
This escalation of violence comes in the wake of a UN-mandated mission’s report released on Friday, which stated that both sides in Sudan’s 18-month-old civil war have committed abuses that may amount to war crimes. The mission called for the deployment of peacekeepers and the implementation of a country-wide arms embargo.
However, Sudan’s army-aligned foreign ministry rejected these recommendations on Saturday, dismissing the idea of international peacekeepers as “the wish of Sudan’s enemies and it will not be fulfilled.”
As the conflict continues to ravage Sudan, the international community faces mounting pressure to intervene and address the escalating humanitarian crisis. The situation in Sennar underscores the urgent need for a resolution to the conflict and highlights the devastating impact of prolonged warfare on civilian populations.
