Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have allegedly been targeting civilians in Gezira state, including unlawfully detaining, injuring, killing and raping local residents, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released on Sunday.

HRW has called for the UN  to deploy a mission to Sudan, in order to protect civilians. HRW criticized the UN Security Council for its minimal action to address the ongoing crisis. The violence in Sudan has caused more than 3 million people to flee the country.

A UN Fact-Finding Mission previously noted that there is an “appalling” ongoing violation of human rights in Sudan, with RSF being held responsible for the high amounts of sexual violence occurring during the civil war.

The violence, which started in Al Gezira since the RSF took over its capital, has been intensified since October 20, when a RSF general in the region, Abuagla Keikal, defected to the other side, resulting in RSF attacking 30 villages and towns in the state. As per UN estimates, this has resulted in around 130,000 people leaving for safety to other regions of the country, as well as extensive violence.

The RSF,  Sudan’s most powerful paramilitary group, initially collaborated with the Sudanese Armed Forces in the coup that ousted long-ruling Omar al-Bashir in 2019, but quickly began to clash with the government following a second attempted coup in April 2023. The conflict has resulted in a civil war in Sudan, causing the deaths of over 15,000 people and displacing 8.2 million people, amounting to one of the most extreme displacement crises in the world.