The Sudanese Doctors’ Network has levelled accusations of genocide against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The areas affected are El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, and the regions of South, West and North Kordofan, which are controlled by the RSF.

Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction of a group on the basis of their nationality, ethnicity, race or religion, either in whole or in part.

The network’s spokesman, Ahmed El Nour Raqam Allah, described the “targeted shelling” of residential areas, and the siege and starvation of more than half a million civilians by the RSF in El Fasher as “nothing less than a crime of genocide.”

The organization also accused the RSF of carrying out mass murder.

In South, West and North Kordofan, the paramilitaries also subjected the population to sieges, forced displacement and identity-based killings, the network said.

These are not isolated cases, but “part of a calculated policy of genocide and crimes against humanity,” Raqam Allah said.

Ultimately, however, only international courts can determine such violations.

War has been raging in Sudan between the RSF and the Sudanese army since April 2023. Both sides are accused of serious human rights violations.

The UN considers the situation as the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, with more than 12 million people displaced and more than 26 million facing starvation about half the country’s population – are suffering from acute hunger. The regions of Darfur and Kordofan, currently controlled by the RSF, are particularly affected.