Sudan paramilitaries kill 18 civilians in attack on villages west of Khartoum

Rights group says attack on two North Kordofan villages killed 18 civilians and wounded dozens during Sudan war

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Sudan's paramilitaries killed 18 civilians in an attack on two villages west of Khartoum earlier this week, a monitoring group said on Saturday.

The attack occurred on Thursday in North Kordofan state, which is key to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces' fuel smuggling route from Libya.

The area has been a major battleground between the army and the paramilitaries for months, and communications lines with the rest of the world have been mostly cut off.

According to the Emergency Lawyers human rights group, which has documented abuses since the start of the war two years ago, the attack on the two villages in North Kordofan "killed 18 civilians and wounded dozens".

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The wounded were transferred to the state capital of El-Obeid for treatment.

Tolls are nearly impossible to independently verify in Sudan, with many medical facilities forced out of service and limited media access.

Since the RSF lost control of the capital Khartoum to the army in March, it has focused its attacks in the west of the country, where it controls much of the vast Darfur region.

Both sides have faced accusations of war crimes during the conflict, which has killed tens of thousands and created what the United Nations describes as the world's largest displacement and hunger crises.