Sudan's paramilitary forces launched a three-day assault near Khartoum, killing more than 200, the Emergency Lawyers network said Tuesday. The rights group said hundreds were injured or missing, and that hundreds had been subjected to "executions, kidnappings, forced disappearances and looting."

The lawyers' network said the paramilitaries shot at villagers as they were trying to cross the White Nile to escape, so some civilians may have drowned.

Children among the dead

The army-backed government's foreign ministry said in total 433 people had been killed, including children.

"Some bodies are still lying in the street, and some were killed in their homes and no one can reach them," a medical source told AFP news agency, saying it was impossible to determine the actual death toll.

The rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary attacks targeted the villages of Al-Kadaris and Al-Khelwat in the White Nile state, 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the capital.

The UN had received "horrifying reports that dozens of women were raped and hundreds of families were forced to flee," a spokesperson for Secretary General Antonio Guterres said.

Control of the White Nile state

Both factions are currently trying to gain control over the White Nile State, which stretches from the south of Khartoum to the border with South Sudan.

The army is in control of southern areas, whereas the RSF holds northern parts.
  
The lawyers' network on Tuesday said the army had conducted "barbaric" attacks on civilians east of Khartoum.

The UN human rights body said on Tuesday that "summary executions, sexual violence and other violations and abuses underscore the utter failure" by both sides to respect international humanitarian law.

Recently, the RSF rallied allied politicians and armed groups in Nairobi, Kenya, to sign a charter that would pave the way for a "Government of Peace and Unity" to rule Sudan.

Civil war in Sudan

Sudan has been embroiled in a war since April 2023.

The conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives, displaced more than 12 million and driven hundreds of thousands into famine.

More than 24.6 million people — around half of Sudan's population — face "high levels of acute food insecurity," according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative, backed by the United Nations.

The International Rescue Committee has called it the "biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded."

Edited by: Kieran Burke