The Sudanese
army on Tuesday condemned what it called "individual violations" in
Sudan's El Gezira in recent days after rights groups blamed the army and its
allies for ethnically-targeted attacks on civilians.
The attacks
largely targeted people from western Sudan living in the central state because
of accusations they collaborated with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces,
which is fighting the army in a near two-year
civil war.
Earlier this
week, the Sudanese army and allied forces recaptured
the state capital Wad Madani from the RSF, marking a possible turning
point in the devastating conflict.
Emergency
Lawyers, a human rights group, said that 13 people were killed in a farming
settlement known as Kambo Tayba after the army advanced through the area.
It said the
attacks followed hate speech linking residents to the RSF. The group also cited
other incidents of civilians being rounded up, tortured, or executed in recent
days. The reports could not be verified by Reuters.
"The
Armed Forces condemn the individual violations that have recently occurred in
some areas of El Gezira following the cleansing of Wad Madani, and at the same
time affirms ... its keenness to hold accountable anyone involved in any
violations that affect any person in the kanabi (settlements for farmers from
western Sudan) and villages," the army said on Tuesday.
El Gezira was
the site of a year-long
campaign of looting and violence against civilians by RSF fighters
that drove hundreds of thousands of residents away. Some residents said that
young men from the long-marginalised kanabi participated in the RSF raids.
In a video
shared on social media but not verified by Reuters, a civilian pleads with
soldiers who surround him and accuse him of being in the RSF. Then one soldier
backs the man up against a brick wall and shoots him multiple times.
In another, a
young man is pushed off of a bridge by a group of men. One of the men was
wearing a jacket with the insignia of the al-Baraa ibn Malik battalion, an
Islamist militia allied to the army. Reuters located the video to Hantoob
bridge in Wad Madani but was not able to confirm the date.
"The
biggest loser in this war are innocent, defenceless civilians, who are daily
paying a high price as a result of the continued conflict," the Sudanese
Doctors Union said in a statement. "... while their circumstances prevent
them from leaving these areas."