A Sudanese NGO raises the death toll to nearly 400 in a town of Gezira surrounded by paramilitaries RSF

The organization puts the death toll in the town at 382 due to “poisoning” and “lack of health care”

Nov. 13. (EUROPA PRESS) –

A Sudanese non-governmental organization has raised the death toll to nearly 400 in a city in the state of Gezira (center) that has been under siege for weeks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), within the framework of the war that broke out in April. of 2023 in the African country.

The Gezira Conference, a Sudanese civil society group, has indicated in a statement published on its Facebook social network account that a total of 382 people have died in Al Hilaliya due to “poisoning and lack of health care.”

Thus, he pointed out that during the day on Monday, 23 people died, including six children, amid the worsening of the situation in the surrounded city, located about 70 kilometers northeast of the capital of Gezira, Uad Madani.

Local sources cited by the Nida al Uasat group have accused the RSF of poisoning drinking water and distributing food poisoned with fertilizers and mercury, according to the Sudanese news portal Sudan Tribune.

The non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday accused the paramilitary group of murders, illegal detentions and rape during its attacks in the state of Gezira, which is why it insisted on the need for the United Nations to deploy a mission to protect the civilian population.

The RSF took control of the capital of Gezira, Wad Madani, in December 2023, since then perpetrating serious human rights abuses, including murders, kidnappings and sexual violence. Attacks have increased following the defection on October 20 of the group’s leader for Gezira, Abu Aqla Kikil.

Sudan is mired in a civil war following hostilities that broke out in April 2023 within the framework of increased tensions over the integration of the RSF within the Armed Forces, a key part of a signed agreement in December 2022 to form a new civilian government and reactivate the transition opened after the 2019 overthrow of Omar Hasan al Bashir, damaged by the coup d’état of October 2021, in which the then transition minister, Abdullah Hamdok, was overthrown. .