THE Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) raided and set fire to villages in North Kordofan state, killing nearly 300 people, including children and pregnant women, a rights group said on Monday.

The accusation from the Emergency Lawyers (EL) group came as fighting continued in the civil war between the RSF and the Sudanese military that has raged for over two years.

The army has taken firm control of the centre and east of Sudan, while the RSF maintains control of the western regions, including North Kordofan and Darfur.

EL said the RSF had attacked several villages on Saturday around the city of Bara, which the paramilitary force controls.

The lawyers said that in one village, Shag Alnom, more than 200 people were killed in a “terrible massacre.”

The victims were either “burned inside their homes” or shot. In the neighbouring villages, 38 other civilians were also killed and dozens more have been forcibly “disappeared.”

Hilat Hamid, killing at least 46 people, including children and pregnant women.

“It has been proven that these targeted villages were completely empty of any military objectives, which makes clear the criminal nature of these crimes carried out in complete disregard of international humanitarian law,” EL said.

The United Nations’ International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Sunday that intensified fighting in the region forced more than 3,000 people to flee the villages of Shag Alnom and al-Kordi.

Sudan’s civil war has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, driving more than half the population into hunger and spreading disease, including cholera, across the country.

At least 40,000 people have been killed, while 13 million have been displaced.

Last week the International Criminal Court said it has launched a new probe into war crimes and crimes against humanity in the western Darfur region.