A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Even for a war as brutal as the one in Sudan, this past week has been one of the deadliest, with hundreds of people killed by bombings and revenge attacks and tens of thousands more displaced. Here's NPR's Emmanuel Akinwotu.
EMMANUEL AKINWOTU, BYLINE: Al Jazirah state, just south of the capital, Khartoum, was Sudan's bread basket before the war, rich in fertile land. Now its fields are soaked in blood.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Arabic).
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AKINWOTU: Unverified footage on social media shows dozens of men, young and old, held captive with their hands tied behind their backs. They're taunted and humiliated as they're marched through the countryside by fighters from the RSF.
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AKINWOTU: Then, in subsequent footage, there are scores of bodies wrapped in bloody sheets, waiting to be buried. The RSF have denied killing civilians, and claim to have only killed people who took up arms against them in their war with Sudan's army.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking Arabic).
AKINWOTU: But eyewitness accounts shared with NPR reveal otherwise. This man's name has been hidden to protect his identity, as he fears being attacked. He says two of his family members were killed, and now he's lost contact with his wife and newborn baby.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking Arabic).
AKINWOTU: Close to 500 people have been killed over the last week, according to local activists. And more than 45,000 people have been displaced during the same period, according to the U.N. The attacks have been described by many as reprisals. They follow the defection of a senior RSF commander to the Sudanese army. It was hailed by the army as a major blow to the RSF. But just days later, RSF fighters returned, seemingly without any resistance from the military.
MAHA SULIEMAN: There is no words to describe the decision that is happening in Al Jazirah.
AKINWOTU: Maha Sulieman is a doctor and works for the Sudanese American Physicians Association, or SAPA. The organization supports medical centers in Al Jazirah state and across Sudan. She said there were growing fears for the women and girls there, amid widespread reports of sexual violence.
SULIEMAN: There has been killing, attacking, looting, raping and kidnapping of women, and also children.
AKINWOTU: When the fighting erupted on the streets of the capital, Khartoum, last April, thousands fled to Al Jazirah, just south of there - until the war reached them, and turned a place of refuge into a nightmare. Emmanuel Akinwotu, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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