AL-JAZIRA STATE: On a countryside road in battle-ravaged Sudan, the hum of a passing vehicle turns villagers' blood cold, fearing the arrival of paramilitaries plundering their way south in their war against the army.
"They've created a state of total panic," said Rabab, who lives in a village north of Wad Madani, the Al-Jazira state capital and latest site of fierce battles between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
At least eight people were killed by RSF fighters in a village in Al-Jazira state, witnesses said, adding that they had been shot after trying to stop their looting.
Just south of Khartoum, more than half a million people had sought shelter in Al-Jazira after the fighting overwhelmed the Sudanese capital.
This month, however, paramilitaries pressed deeper into the state and shattered one of the country's few remaining sanctuaries, forcing more than 300,000 people to flee once again, the United Nations said.
Those who remain -- unable or unwilling to leave -- have found themselves in what the Red Cross has called "another death trap".
Since April 15, Sudan has been gripped by a war pitting army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
By the end of November, at least 12,190 people had been killed in the fighting, according to a conservative estimate from the Armed Conflict and Location Event Data project.
The United Nations says more than seven million people have been displaced by the war. At least 85,000 had sought refuge in Wad Madani.
In the village of Aykura, 30 kilometres north of Wad Madani, one resident said that "the RSF has taken everything -- the cars, the trucks, the tractors".
He stressed the need for anonymity to protect him from paramilitary violence.
RSF fighters were seen north of Sennar, about 140 kilometres south of Wad Madani, according to witnesses.
The RSF has become notorious for looting property, with civilians who fled watching in horror as fighters posted videos of themselves on social media taking joyrides in stolen cars and vandalising homes.
In Tambul, halfway between Khartoum and Wad Madani, witnesses said RSF members rampaged through one of the state's main markets, shooting into the air at random.
And many who tried to flee the onslaught were unable to.
Activists, who risk their lives to document the horrors, said the RSF had set up checkpoints across the state, stopping civilians as they tried to flee and ordering them to turn back. — AFP
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