Sudanese in ‘total panic’ as paramilitaries move south

AL-JAZIRA STATE, Sudan: On a countryside road in battle-ravaged Sudan, the hum of a passing vehicle turns villagers´ blood cold, fearing the arrival of paramilitaries plundering their way south in their war against the army.

“They´ve created a state of total panic,” said Rabab, who lives in a village north of Wad Madani, the Al-Jazira state capital and latest site of fierce battles between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Like others AFP spoke to, she requested to be identified by first name only out of fear of retaliation from fighters who have consistently targeted civilians during more than eight months of war.

On Saturday at least eight people were killed by RSF fighters in a village in Al-Jazira state, witnesses told AFP, saying they had been shot after trying to stop their looting. Just south of Khartoum, more than half a million people had sought shelter in Al-Jazira after the fighting overwhelmed the Sudanese capital.

This month, however, paramilitaries pressed deeper into the state and shattered one of the country´s few remaining sanctuaries, forcing more than 300,000 people to flee once again, the United Nations said.

Those who remain -- unable or unwilling to leave -- have found themselves in what the Red Cross has called “another death trap”. Since April 15, Sudan has been gripped by a war pitting army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. By the end of November, at least 12,190 people had been killed in the fighting, according to a conservative estimate from the Armed Conflict and Location Event Data project.