Dozens killed in RSF attack in Sudan's Sennar amid peace talks

Sudanese paramilitary forces killed at least 80 people in a southeastern village, a medical source and witnesses said, even as United States-sponsored talks sought to end 16 months of devastating war.

The assault occurred in Jalgini village in the state of Sennar.

"We received 55 dead and dozens of wounded at the hospital on Thursday, and 25 of them died on Friday, bringing the death toll to 80," a source at Jalgini's medical centre told AFP.

A survivor said the paramilitaries had initially faced resistance from local villagers before returning in full force.

"Yesterday morning, three military vehicles attacked Jalgini. The residents resisted, prompting the retreat of the paramilitaries, who then returned with dozens of vehicles," a Jalgini resident, who took his wounded son to the hospital, told AFP.

"They opened fire, torching homes and killing numerous people," said the man, who asked not to be named.

"On Friday, some bodies were still strewn on the street."

Ceasefire talks began on Wednesday in Switzerland, hosted by US, Saudi and Swiss mediators, though the Sudanese army refused to take part.

Previous rounds of negotiations in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia have failed to produce an agreement to end the fighting.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which since April 2023 has been battling Sudan's regular army, captured the Sennar state capital of Sinja in June.

Since then, fighting in Sennar has displaced nearly 726,000 people, according to the UN agency the International Organization for Migration.

Many of them had fled the war in other parts of the northeast African country.

The state connects central Sudan to the army-controlled southeast, where hundreds of thousands of people have sought refuge.

'Essential' aid route

The war pits army chief Abdel Fattah al Burhan against the RSF led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

It has pushed the country of 48 million to the brink of famine, according to the United Nations, and killed tens of thousands of people, with some estimates of up to 150,000, according to US envoy to Sudan Tom Perriello.

More than 10 million people are currently displaced across Sudan, most in areas facing worsening humanitarian conditions as fighting spreads.

Both sides have been accused of war crimes, including deliberately targeting civilians and blocking humanitarian aid.

Despite the Sudanese army's no-show at the Switzerland negotiations, Perriello told AFP the talks were having some success, simply by casting international focus on Sudan at a time "when the world was turning its attention away".

Burhan's authorities have announced that the western Adre border crossing with Chad was set to reopen for humanitarian deliveries.

Opening the crossing "has been an essential demand for months now, to move humanitarian aid into some of the parts of Darfur that have had the most acute starvation and hunger", Perriello said.