Port Sudan, Sudan   -   Sudanese paramilitary forces killed at least 80 people in an attack on a village in the war-torn country’s southeast, a medical source and witnesses said Friday.

The assault on Jalgini village in Sennar state on Thursday came 16 months into the war between the country’s rival generals and as mediators have convened ceasefire talks in Switzerland.

“We received 55 dead and dozens of wounded at the hospital on Thursday, and 25 of them died on Friday, bringing the death toll to 80,” a source at Jalgini’s medical centre told AFP.

A survivor said the paramilitary forces attacked on Thursday morning. “Yesterday morning, three military vehicles attacked Jalgini. The residents resisted, prompting the retreat of the paramilitaries, who then returned with dozens of vehicles,” a Jalgini resident, who took his wounded son to the hospital, told AFP.

“They opened fire, torching homes and killing numerous people,” said the man, who asked not to be named.

“On Friday, some bodies were still strewn on the street.”

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which since April 2023 has been battling Sudan’s regular army, captured the Sennar state capital of Sinja in June.

Since then, fighting in Sennar has displaced nearly 726,000 people, according to UN agency the International Organization for Migration.