Sudan's security forces killed, raped and burned civilians alive, says rights group

Human Rights Watch report catalogues appalling acts carried out by Sudan's Rapid Support Forces during two military campaigns in Darfur

Sudanese security forces gang-raped women in hospital, shot and burned civilians alive, and committed other appalling acts of torture during two military campaigns in Darfur, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday, urging international peacekeepers to do more to stop the atrocities.

In a new report - the latest detailing repeated horrors in Darfur - HRW quoted women who were gang-raped, and defectors from the government's Rapid Support Forces (RSF), one of whom described his commanders as "men without mercy".