KASSALA, Sudan, Oct 22, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Local activists in central Sudan have reported over 50 people killed since clashes erupted in Al-Jazira state on Sunday after a paramilitary commander defected to the army.

In the state capital of Wad Madani, a military air strike on a mosque killed 31 people, the local resistance committee, one of hundreds of volunteer groups coordinating aid across the war-torn country, said in a statement to AFP on Tuesday.

They accused the army of using "barrel bombs", adding that over half of the dead remained unidentified as rescuers combed through the remains of "dozens of charred and mutilated bodies".

In the state's war-ravaged east, activists said at least 20 people have been killed in paramilitary attacks since Sunday.

War has raged between the Sudanese armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since April 2023, killing tens of thousands of people and creating the world's largest displacement and humanitarian crises.

The two forces are currently locked in brutal combat over central Sudan's agricultural Al-Jazira state, which has been under paramilitary control since late last year.

On Sunday, the army announced that the RSF's Al-Jazira commander Abu Aqla Kaykal had abandoned the paramilitary force, bringing "a large number of his forces" to "fight alongside our army", in what they said was the first high-profile defection to the military's side.

A spokesman for army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said Kaykal and others who defect would receive "amnesty", as war-weary civilians braced for renewed attacks.

- 'Vengeful' attacks -
Mere hours after the army took control of Tamboul -- 75 kilometres (46 miles) north of Wad Madani -- eyewitnesses reported RSF troops were back "rampaging" through the city.

They said paramilitary soldiers were "shooting randomly in the air" and forcing civilians to carry looted cargo.

By Tuesday, the RSF had "repelled an army attempt" to regain the town of Tamboul, a paramilitary source told AFP, requesting anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

The RSF has long been accused of rampant looting, laying siege to entire villages and systemic sexual violence in Al-Jazira and across Sudan.
Both sides have been accused of war crimes, including targeting civilians, indiscriminately shelling residential areas and blocking or looting aid.

In the town of Rufaa, just 50 kilometres north of the state capital, the local resistance committee on Tuesday said RSF attacks on a series of villages in eastern Al-Jazira resulted in at least 20 deaths.

The activists accused the paramilitaries of carrying out "vengeful operations against defenceless" civilians, in response to Kaykal's defection.

According to the volunteer group Central Observatory for Human Rights, at least seven towns and villages have been hit by "vengeful attacks that pay no heed to the rights of civilians during wartime".