More than one hundred and twenty people, mostly Christians, were killed in Al Jazeera state, central Sudan, during an attack by militias who besieged villages in the area on Friday, according to a newest account released yesterday Monday by the health minister.

“Paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) committed a massacre against the civilians of let Shariha in al-Jazeera state (…) where “over 200 wounded and 124 martyrs were counted,” said Health Minister Haytham Mohammed Ibrahim.

His services are “working to deliver medicine and provide care to the wounded and sick in the besieged areas urgently,” he added.

“I am deeply alarmed by the escalation of violence against children and families in al-Jazeera state,” UNICEF’s director, Katherine Russell, stressed in a statement released by its agencies.

“During the past week, at least 124 people were reportedly killed in al-Jazeera – including at least ten children, some under the age of ten – and at least 43 children were injured,” Ms. Russell added.

An organisation fighting to restore democracy said on Saturday that at least 50 people were killed in two villages in al-Jazeera state after the ISF attack.

Sudan, Africa’s third-largest country, has since April 15, 2023, been transformed into a theater of merciless war with countless casualties – various estimates put the number of victims at 20,000 to 150.000 dead, but doctors point out that most deaths are not recorded – between the ISF under General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SDF), under General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto leader of the African state.

The militias have recently stepped up violence against civilians in the rural state of al-Jazeera, south of the capital Khartoum, after their commander in that area decided to switch sides and allied himself with the army.

On Friday, the Sudanese doctors’ union called on the United Nations to press for the UN to ensure safe humanitarian corridors are opened to villages “facing genocide” by the ISF as rescue operations have become impossible.

According to medical sources, all health centers have been forced to close in besieged communities.