RSF razes villages in Darfur, killing dozens; UN warns of rising attacks on children

Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have carried out a series of attacks on villages near the western border with Chad, razing entire settlements and displacing thousands, according to two survivors and the United Nations. The RSF has been at war with the Sudanese army since April 2023 and has been accused by the UN of committing repeated massacres against Darfur's non-Arab ethnic groups, particularly the Zaghawa people who inhabit the western villages of North Darfur state.

The UN migration agency reported that more than 3,500 people were displaced on Friday from the single village of Wadi Fungo in the Um Baru locality of North Darfur. "They sent artillery through homes, they burned to the ground, and people died on the street with no one to bury them," said Issa Ibrahim, who evacuated his wife and children across the border into Chad. "We passed by two villages, Oruwa and Ana Baji, that were burned entirely. Bodies lay on the ground." Mohamed Adam, a 43-year-old resident of the village Qarboura, said two of his brothers were killed in the attacks, where fighters "burned down homes and killed everyone who couldn't run away."

Last year, the RSF seized the army's last Darfur stronghold of El-Fasher in an assault that a UN inquiry said bore the "hallmarks of genocide," mainly targeting the city's Zaghawa population. The paramilitary group has since pushed west, attacking enclaves controlled by the Joint Forces, a coalition of army-allied armed groups whose leaders and fighters are also predominantly Zaghawa.

In a separate report, the UN said the RSF has killed or injured at least 330 children in the first six months of 2026. The figures include more than 200 children killed and at least 100 maimed, mostly in the Kordofan and Darfur regions. "Children are being killed and injured in their homes, on the roads, in markets, and while attempting to access essential services such as education and healthcare," said Sheldon Yett, UNICEF's Sudan chief.

Since the war began in April 2023, tens of thousands have been killed, with aid workers estimating more than 200,000 dead. Across Sudan, five million children are internally displaced, and millions are going hungry, including over 825,000 children under five suffering from severe acute malnutrition.