ANKARA 

Thirteen Sudanese civilians were executed by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in North Darfur, a local medical group said on Sunday.

The victims included “5 children, 4 women, and 4 elderly individuals,” the Sudan Doctors Network said in a statement on the US social media company X.

It described the attack in the Khazan Qolo area along the El-Fasher-Tawila road as a “horrific massacre” targeting civilians.

The network called the attack “yet another episode in the ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide being perpetrated by the RSF against unarmed civilians in Darfur, in blatant violation of all international and humanitarian laws.”

“The systematic targeting of children, women, and the elderly clearly proves that the RSF is pursuing a deliberate policy of forcibly displacing citizens from their land based on ethnic grounds,” it said.

This attack, the network said, “constitutes a full-fledged war crime and a crime against humanity, and contradicts the RSF's own calls for civilians to evacuate El-Fasher.”

While holding the RSF “fully responsible for these ongoing massacres,” it called on the international community and the UN Security Council “to take immediate action to stop the genocide and ethnic cleansing through urgent measures against the RSF leadership, in response to their continued atrocities in Darfur.”

El-Fasher has been under siege since May, with local groups repeatedly accusing the RSF of shelling civilian areas despite international calls to protect humanitarian corridors.

The army and RSF have been fighting a war since April 2023 that has killed more than 20,000 people and displaced 14 million, according to the UN and local authorities. Research from US universities, however, estimates the death toll at around 130,000.