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June 23, 2023

Activists ID Hundreds Killed by Paramilitaries and Arab Militias in Sudan's Darfur Region
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In Sudan, residents began fleeing the southwestern city of Kadugli
Thursday as a new front opened between Sudan's army and the rebel group
known as the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North. Sudan's army says
fighters with the group broke a long-standing ceasefire agreement this
week and attacked Sudanese military units.

In the capital Khartoum, heavy fighting continues between Sudan's army
and the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Elsewhere, activists
say they've identified 500 bodies across the city of El Geneina, the
capital of Sudan's western Darfur region. Witnesses say thousands more
bodies remain uncollected in the city's streets, after paramilitaries
and allied Arab militias stepped up attacks on non-Arab residents of the
region. Aid workers say tens of thousands of people fleeing the violence
for neighboring Chad have also faced the threat of violence and sexual
assault. Laura Lo Castro, the U.N. Refugee Agency's representative in
Chad, spoke to refugees who survived the journey.

Laura Lo Castro: "They described terrifying scenes in which everyone had
to flee for their lives. There were massacres. And as they fled, they
sometimes, unfortunately, had to leave behind little children who
couldn't run, people who were injured and the elderly."



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