Sudanese paramilitary forces launched a shooting attack on a village in Sudan’s main agricultural region, killing at least 104 people, including dozens of children, Sudanese pro-democracy activists said.
The exact circumstances of Wednesday’s attack in Wad al-Noura, a village 70 miles south of the capital Khartoum, are disputed.
But the high death toll and images of mass burials that circulated on social media on Thursday and were confirmed by The New York Times drew international condemnation and made the attack the latest flashpoint in Sudan’s brutal year-long war. So.
Clementine Nquita-Salami, the top U.N. official in Sudan, said in a statement: “Even by the tragic standards of Sudan’s conflict, the images of Waad Noura are heartbreaking.”
“The world is watching,” British Foreign Secretary David Cameron wrote on social media. “Those responsible will be held accountable.”
Still, Sudan has seen little accountability for atrocities since it descended into a disastrous civil war more than a year ago, when fighting broke out between the country’s national army and the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
With phone lines down in Peninsular Province, where Wadnoura is located, Sudanese have relied on videos and accounts from local activists to learn about the latest mass casualty incidents.
Video shared online and geolocated by The Times showed a convoy of at least five Rapid Support Force vehicles lining the road about half a mile from Vadnoura on Wednesday.
Gunmen can be seen standing behind stationary vehicles, firing machine guns across open fields and into villages. The video is about five minutes long and contains constant gunshots.
Residents blocked access to the village to prevent the militants from reaching there, the film’s narrator said. It does not appear that the militants were shot.
However, another video from inside Vadnura shows that the village has taken up some kind of armed defense. In the video, a resident pleads for help as shots are fired outside.
“The village is under siege,” the man said. “Save Vadenura.”
The local resistance committee, part of a national network of pro-democracy groups, called the incident a massacre. Video released by the group on Thursday showed at least 50 bodies being wrapped in cloth and prepared for burial in the village.
The videos and photos were verified by The Times and the Sudan Witness Project of the Information Recovery Center, a nonprofit organization that monitors the conflict and documents potential war crimes.
The Resistance Council said at least 104 people died and blamed the National Army for failing to save them. “The people of Vadnoura called on the army to rescue them, but shamefully, they did not respond.”
The Rapid Support Forces disputed this claim. In a statement, it acknowledged that its forces opened fire on Wadnura but said they were attacking military positions around the village and lost eight soldiers in the fighting.
Unicef chief Catherine Russell said in a statement that she was “shocked” by reports that at least 35 children had been killed and 20 injured in the violence, and called on all warring parties to respect international law.
Sudanese Army Chief of Staff Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan visited villagers injured in the attack on Thursday. Speaking at a hospital in the nearby town of Manakil, he said the military would respond “harshly” to the killings by Doctors Without Borders.
The village is located in an agricultural area and was once the sultan’s breadbasket, but is now a vast battlefield.
Médecins Sans Frontières captured the peninsula provincial capital of Wad Madani in December, part of a series of shocking victories that put Sudanese forces at a disadvantage.
In recent months, the military has attempted to retake Al Jazeera in a massive counteroffensive. Wad al-Noura is about 20 miles from the nearest front line in that battle.
In western Darfur, Doctors Without Borders has laid siege to El Fasher, the last stronghold of Sudanese forces in Darfur, raising concerns that an all-out war in the city could bring about genocide or worsen the hunger crisis. , aid workers say the hunger crisis could become a severe famine.
Doctors Without Borders receives weapons and other support from its main foreign sponsor, the United Arab Emirates, according to U.S. and U.N. officials. The United States on Thursday imposed new sanctions on seven UAE-based companies related to the conflict in Sudan.
Abdalrahman Altayeb contributed reporting from Port Sudan. The video is editor Inara Tiefenthaler
