SUDAN – The head of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan have affirmed Sudan’s determination to defeat the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in western Darfur region.

His remarks came during a visit to the village of Wad Al-Noora in Sudan’s central Gezira state on Tuesday, where the RSF reportedly carried out a massacre in June 2024, according to the state news agency SUNA.

Burhan stressed that the Sudanese army will not lay down arms “until this rebellion and brutal aggression are eradicated.”

“My visit to the village fulfills a previous promise I made to the wounded in the area and is a duty owed to console the families of the martyrs,” Burhan said.

On June 7, 2024, Sudan’s Foreign Ministry accused the RSF of carrying out a massacre in Wad Al-Noora, killing 180 civilians.

The paramilitary group has repeatedly denied responsibility for such atrocities against civilians.

The Sudanese army announced a full control of Gezira State in March, nearly a year after the RSF seized it.

Sudan has been ravaged by fighting between the army and the RSF since April 2023, killing more than 20,000 people and displacing 14 million, according to the UN and local authorities.

Research from US universities, however, estimates the death toll at around 130,000.