Khartoum, Aug 17 (IANS): At least 80 people were killed in an attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a village in Sinnar state in central Sudan, a volunteer group said.
"The RSF launched a bloody attack yesterday (Thursday) on the Jalqni village of (Abu Hujar locality) in Sinnar state, after a five-day siege, killing at least 80 people," the Sinnar Youth Gathering said on Friday in a statement.
"The attack came after the RSF tried to kidnap girls from the village, which the residents resisted, leading to this massacre," the statement said.
It added that the "RSF militia" responded to the citizens' resistance by opening fire indiscriminately and storming homes, Xinhua news agency reported.
The RSF has not yet issued any comment on the incident.
Since June, the RSF has controlled large parts of Sinnar state, including the state's capital city of Singa, while the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) controls the eastern Sinnar area.
According to the International Organisation for Migration, the fighting in Sinnar state has displaced more than 725,000 people.
Sudan has been witnessing a deadly conflict between the SAF and the RSF since April 15, 2023, which has resulted in the loss of at least 16,650 lives.
An estimated 10.7 million people are now internally displaced in Sudan, with nearly 2.2 million others seeking refuge in neighbouring countries, according to recent UN data.
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 RSF, which since April 2023 has been battling Sudan's regular army, captured the Sennar state capital of Sinja in June.
The state connects central Sudan to the army-controlled southeast, where hundreds of thousands of people have sought refuge.
The RSF controls most of the capital Khartoum, the central state of Al-Jazira, the vast western Darfur region and large swathes of Kordofan in the south.
The war pits Army Chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against the RSF led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
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.