CAIRO — A leading human rights group called on Monday for an international force to protect civilians in war-torn Sudan amid reports that a notorious paramilitary group has killed dozens of civilians and committed widespread rape during a stealthily in a province bordering Khartoum.

Sudan has been mired in war for nearly 19 months in a power struggle between the army and fast-backed paramilitary forces, which have been accused of atrocities in several areas they have taken control of.

Rapid Support Forces rampaged through Gezira province last month, attacking towns and villages.

Human Rights Watch said the RSF “killed, injured, and illegally detained dozens of civilians and raped women and girls” in Gezira. He called on Britain to use its turn as president of the United Nations Security Council this month to push for UN action to deploy a mission to protect civilians in Sudan.

“This recent massive increase in heinous Rapid Support Force attacks against civilians should end any lingering hope that these crimes will stop without a strong global response,” said Mohamed Osman, HRW’s Sudan researcher. “The UN Security Council’s minimal action clearly fails to protect civilians.”

The war began in April 2023, when rising tensions between the army and the RSF erupted into fighting in the capital Khartoum and around Sudan. More than 24,000 people have been killed and more than 14 million people – about 30 percent of the population – have been driven from their homes, creating the world’s biggest displacement crisis this year, according to the International Organization for Migration, or IOM. Famine hit some areas, and a cholera outbreak killed more than 800 people and sickened another 28,000.

Gezira province, southeast of Khartoum, has been largely controlled by the RSF since December. In October, one of its commanders in charge of the province, Abu Aqlah Keikel, defected and surrendered to the army.

RSF fighters responded by rampaging through towns and villages across the province.

Fighters have shot civilians and sexually assaulted and raped women and girls in several places, according to the UN and local groups. About 135,000 people have been forced from their homes since October 20, according to the IOM.

Three Sudanese – two women and a young man – told The Associated Press that RSF fighters stormed their town of Tamboul on October 22, firing on civilians in their homes. They said they saw fighters shoot 12 men in the streets as they tried to escape. Many people, including women and girls, were detained, they said.

“They went from house to house telling people to leave” and looking for people connected to Keikel, one woman, Inaam Abu Gassim, said by phone from her shelter in nearby Qadarif province.

At least 47 women and girls were raped around the town of Tamboul, the Sudanese Doctors Union said. A 7-year-old girl bled to death after being raped, union spokesman Dr. Yassar al-Besheri told AP.

In another city, Sariha, at least 123 people were killed and another 200 injured in late October, the union said.

Human Rights Watch quoted a man from Sariha as saying that RSF fighters stopped him, his wife and three daughters as they were leaving their homes on October 22.

“One of the RSF soldiers looked at my youngest daughter, who is 15, and said, ‘Leave her so we can enjoy her, and you can go,'” the 51-year-old said. He and his family, including his daughter, managed to escape, HRW reported.

In the town of al-Hilaliya, the union said at least 200 people have died this month. At least two dozen were killed by RSF fighters. The rest reportedly died from torture, starvation and disease.

The conflict in Sudan has been raging as global attention has turned over the past year to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and, more recently, to Lebanon, where Israel launched a ground offensive against Hezbollah last month.

Human rights groups have repeatedly called on international powers to pressure Sudan’s warring parties to stop fighting and negotiate a peaceful resolution to the conflict. The United States and Saudi Arabia have led several rounds of talks between the military and the RSF, most recently in August, but all have failed to establish a ceasefire.

A senior US government official said the warring parties were focusing their efforts on making military gains after the end of the rainy season.

The Biden administration has been working with its allies in the region to bring them back to the negotiating table, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with regulations.

“So we’re actively trying with both African and Gulf partners as well as European allies, and I think we may or may not see something develop on that soon,” he said .