Who was behind one of many battle’s deadliest assaults?

Warning: This text incorporates particulars some readers might discover distressing.

For 40-year-old farmer Ali Ibrahim, the nightmare started within the late afternoon on 5 June, with the sound of heavy weapons.

“We had never seen such shelling since we were young,” he recalls. “The bombardment lasted for four hours, with houses destroyed, screaming children – women and the elderly were helpless to escape.”

Not less than 100 civilians had been killed that day within the assault on the Sudanese village of Wad al-Nourah, in accordance with estimates by volunteers of the native resistance committee.

Mr Ibrahim says the villagers had been unarmed: ”We’re easy farmers. We have by no means carried weapons. We’ve got no enemies. We’re simply residents attempting to guard our lives.”

The BBC has heard testimonies from a number of survivors who accuse armed males from the Speedy Assist Forces (RSF) – the paramilitary group combating the Sudanese military – of opening fireplace and storming the village in two successive assaults, utilizing heavy weaponry. Dozens of residents had been killed or injured.

The alleged variety of deaths on this incident would make it one of many deadliest incidents involving civilians because the warfare between the military and the RSF started in April 2023.

The BBC managed to talk to a number of survivors of the Wad al-Nourah assault, who’re presently receiving remedy on the Al Managil authorities hospital the place they had been transferred for remedy.

Reporters had been additionally capable of analyse the movies they shared.

The hospital is positioned about 80km (50 miles) from the village, and lots of survivors arrived there hours after the assault. In accordance with their testimonies, the RSF forces additionally tried to stop them leaving the village, and looted most of their automobiles.

After enduring “hours of terror” during the bombardment, followed by frantic attempts to find a way to transport the wounded and bury those killed by the shelling, the residents were “shocked” by a second massive RSF attack on their village early the next morning, one of the survivors at the hospital told the BBC.

“They entered our home, beat me and my siblings, and requested, ‘the place is the gold?’. My little sister was scared and informed my mom to offer them the gold.”

This account is consistent with those of other survivors, all of whom confirmed RSF forces had “attacked the village from three instructions, entered houses, killed civilians, and looted valuables, together with gold, automobiles, and saved agricultural merchandise”.

Hamad Suleiman, a 42-year-old retail trader, said armed RSF fighters entered his brother’s house and began shooting without warning.

“I went to my brother’s home and located them there… They shot my brother and nephew lifeless, and one other nephew was injured and is right here with me within the hospital.”

He says he tried to reason with the RSF fighters and asked why they had killed his family.

“I attempted to speak to them, and so they informed me to recite the Shahada [The Islamic profession of faith that is recited when the feeling of death is near]. They shot me within the hand and fled… they looted all of the automobiles.

“I was wounded and couldn’t find a way out for hours.”

The BBC contacted the RSF for his or her response to the survivors’ testimonies, and the accusations of assaults, killings, looting and intimidation. We had obtained no reply by the point of this report’s publication.

RSF spokesperson Al-Fateh Qurashi issued a video assertion on X, previously referred to as Twitter, a day after the incident – denying their forces had focused civilians.

He acknowledged that the forces had engaged with parts of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Intelligence – often known as ‘Al Mustanfaron’ – a militia carrying small weapons and aligned with the SAF, who had been within the village on the time of the assault.

The BBC’s fact-finding staff analysed movies supplied by the RSF, which they claimed depicted places and trenches utilized by Al Mustanfaron in Wad al-Nourah. The evaluation revealed these places had been all located exterior the village, not inside it.

The evaluation additionally confirmed that members of the RSF opened fireplace in the direction of the village, utilizing heavy weapons from a couple of mile away.

Wad al-Nourah is much like tons of of villages scattered throughout Gezira state. Most of its residents work in agriculture and commerce, and it has a small weekly market the place merchants from neighbouring villages come to purchase and promote livestock and crops.

The RSF took management of Gezira state, to the south of the capital, Khartoum, in December 2023, and has been accused of finishing up quite a few abuses towards civilians there – which it repeatedly denies.

Gezira state is likely one of the areas most affected by the warfare, with the combating spreading there early on within the battle. It additionally turned a refuge for 1000’s of displaced individuals fleeing Khartoum and Darfur.

For the reason that RSF took management of the world on the finish of final 12 months, one village after one other has suffered acts of violence.

The RSF proceed to disclaim accusations of warfare crimes corresponding to killing, looting, rape and burning villages – as a substitute pointing the finger at what they name “unruly” individuals.

Hundreds of individuals have died and 10 million have been pressured to flee their houses since April final 12 months, when Sudan was thrown into disarray after its military and a strong paramilitary group started a vicious battle for energy.

The UN Resident and Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, has known as for a complete and clear investigation to uncover the circumstances of the Wad al-Nourah assault.

The villagers, who misplaced dozens of family members, hope an investigation committee will probably be established, and that the perpetrators will probably be held accountable – quite than escaping punishment as has occurred previously in Sudan.

Further reporting by Abdelrahman Abutaleb and Richard Irvine-Brown