ISTANBUL

A Sudanese medical group accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Tuesday of piling up dozens of dead bodies inside homes in Bara city in North Kordofan state.

“Dozens of bodies are piled up inside homes after the RSF prevented the victims’ families from burying them, leaving the dead trapped in their houses while the living are surrounded by fear, hunger, and thirst,” the Sudan Doctors Network said in a statement.

It called the RSF atrocities in Bara “a scene that epitomizes the most grotesque forms of human rights violations and systematic killings.”

The group said the number of missing civilians in the city is surging daily amid “a complete communications blackout and the total absence of any effective medical or humanitarian presence in the city.”

Doctors reported mass displacement from Bara, under extremely harsh conditions, as most civilians are forced to flee on foot, without food, medicine, or shelter.

“The health services have completely collapsed, and diseases and malnutrition spread among children, women, and the elderly,” the network said, warning that the RSF assaults in Bara constitute “a crime against humanity by every measure.”

It called on the international community to take immediate and serious action to stop these violations, open safe corridors for civilians, and allow families to bury their dead with dignity.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that more than 38,000 people have fled North and South Kordofan due to worsening insecurity in the area since late October.

The RSF has recently taken control of Bara and El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, as part of its ongoing war with the Sudanese army, though it denies targeting civilians.

Since April 15, 2023, the Sudanese army and the RSF have been locked in a war that regional and international mediations have failed to end. The conflict has killed thousands of people and displaced millions of others.