RSF accused of killing Sudan's West Darfur governor

Sudan's West Darfur Governor Khamis Abbakar has been killed by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces [RSF] in El Geneina city, the North African country's main army and two government sources said.

An advisor in the RSF did not deny or confirm Abbakar's killing on Wednesday.

Speaking to Al-Hadath TV from El Geneina as gun and artillery fire could be heard, Abbakar had on Wednesday called for international intervention in what he described as a "genocide."

"Civilians are being killed randomly and in large numbers," he said.

While the RSF and allied militias had originally targeted areas of El Geneina where members of the Masalit tribe lived, these attacks had now spread to the entire city, he said.

"We haven't seen the army leave its base to defend people," he added.

Activists say 1,100 people have been killed so far in the city.

Sudanese army also accused RSF of "kidnapping and assassinating" Abbakar.

The killing of Abakar meant the RSF has added a "new chapter to its record of barbaric crimes that it has been committing against all the Sudanese people," the army said on Facebook, calling the incident a "brutal act."

Humanitarian crisis

The conflict between the main army and the paramilitary RSF has caused a humanitarian crisis in Khartoum, as well as major cities in the Kordofan and Darfur regions.

The Sudanese Doctors Union said that at least 958 people have been killed since fighting began on April 15, over the integration of the RSF into the main military.

Fighting rocked several vulnerable cities in western Sudan on Wednesday in an expansion of the country's almost two-month-old war as the number of people who have fled their homes rose above two million.

The Darfur region of Sudan has seen periods of conflict since the early 2000s, when millions were displaced and 300,000 were killed by attacks from Arab militias known as the Janjaweed.

The RSF evolved out of those groups, becoming a legalised governmental force in 2017.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres "is highly worried about the increasing ethnic dimension of the violence" a spokesperson said on Tuesday.

His special representative to Sudan, Volker Perthes, blamed "Arab militias and some armed men in RSF's uniform."

In a statement, the RSF called the fighting in El Geneina a tribal conflict, blaming the country's former regime for fanning the flames. It said it had been making efforts to get aid into the city.

Diplomatic efforts led by the United States and Saudi Arabia have faltered, as numerous ceasefires have been violated.