An independent group of doctors in Sudan has announced a paramilitary group killed at least 13 people in the country’s west in recent days.
The Sudan Doctors Network (SDN) accused the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of targeting people based on their ethnicity.
It follows allegations by the UN human rights office that the RSF killed at least 89 civilians in a refugee camp earlier this month.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called the ongoing civil war in Sudan a “crisis of staggering scale and brutality”.
Background
In April 2023, civil war broke out in Sudan between two rival military factions: the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
In October 2024, the UN accused the RSF of “major” attacks on civilians, including “rampant sexual violence” against women and girls.
In April 2025, the SAF regained control of much of the capital city, Khartoum, nearly two years after it was taken by the paramilitary group.
The RSF controls much of the country’s west, including Darfur.
RSF attacks
On the weekend, the RSF killed 13 people, including five children, in North Darfur, according to the SDN.
It alleged the massacre is part of a “ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide” by the RSF.
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Genocide is defined under international law as killing members of a “national, ethnical, racial, or religious group,” or making their survival impossible. Ethnic cleansing has been described by UN experts as removing members of an ethnic or religious group from an area “by violent or terror-inspiring means”.
Last month, ICC Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameen Khan told the UN Security Council that she and her team believe war crimes are currently being committed in Sudan, and that evidence is actively being gathered to support future cases.
The UN has also accused the RSF of killing at least 89 civilians in a refugee camp in El Fasher (the capital of North Darfur) over a 10 day period this month. The majority of those killed were from one tribal group.
The RSF’s recent attacks are part of a long-running effort to take control of El Fasher from the SAF. The city is the army’s last holdout in Darfur.
Aid strikes
Last week, 16 aid trucks travelling to the North Darfur region were hit by a drone strike.
The SAF and the RSF have blamed each other for the strike.
World Food Programme (WFP) chief Cindy McCain said: “Our drivers survived, but 3 trucks carrying life-saving aid were destroyed. Attacks must stop. Safe, sustained access must be guaranteed.”
Hunger
According to the WFP, more than 630,000 people in Sudan are facing “catastrophic levels of hunger” and nearly half the population is facing acute food insecurity.
The UN defines food insecurity as a potentially life-threatening lack of access to food.
Its human rights agency has previously found nearly two thirds of Sudan’s population need humanitarian aid.
