Arya News - Rapid Support Forces launches a large-scale assault on the town of Misteriha, home to tribal leader Musa Hilal.
Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group has carried out a major raid in North Darfur State, killing and wounding dozens of people.
The RSF tore through the town of Misteriha killing at least 28 people and injuring 39 including 10 women, said the Sudan Doctors Network, which monitors violence in the three-year war .
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“These attacks constitute a fully fledged crime and a blatant violation of all humanitarian and international laws that criminalise attacks against civilians,” the group said.
The assault on Misteriha came against a backdrop of rising tribal tensions in the western region of Darfur, where a United Nations investigation last week found that the RSF committed acts of genocide against non-Arab ethnic groups.
The town is home to Arab tribal leader Musa Hilal – who despite hailing from the Arab Rizeigat ethnic group, which forms the tribal base of the RSF – has voiced support for Sudan’s government.
The RSF was formed out of the Janjaweed militia, which fought rebel groups in Darfur and which Hilal commanded. He was sanctioned by the UN for ethnic atrocities in Darfur in the 2000s.
Emergency Lawyers, an independent group documenting atrocities in Sudan, said RSF fighters torched many houses in the town, forcing people to flee to nearby villages.
The seizure of Misteriha would likely assert RSF control of Darfur. However, it risks escalating tribal tensions in an area long known for violence and war.
Monday’s attack came four months after the RSF overran el-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur, after 18 months of siege. The paramilitaries killed more than 6,000 people between October 25-27 in the city.
The attack was marked by atrocities that UN-backed experts said bore “the hallmarks of genocide”.
World’s largest crisis
RSF fighters targeted Hilal’s guesthouse with a drone strike over the weekend before launching their offensive.
Darfur, which is about the size of France, is home to many armed groups mostly organised along ethnic lines. While some have fought for either the RSF or the army, others have remained neutral, forging informal deals to keep territory under their control.
Since the war began in April 2023, fighting between the RSF and Sudan’s regular army has devastated the country, particularly in the Darfur , where the RSF has consolidated control.
The war has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced 11 million, creating the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis .