More than a month after Sudanese troops recaptured the strategic border town of Kurmuk, authorities searching an area northeast of the town say they have found a grim remnant of the fighting - mass graves containing the bodies of 25 civilians.
The dead included women, children and health workers, according to Abdel Aty Mohamed al-Faki, the commissioner of Kurmuk in Sudan's Blue Nile state.
Al-Faki said the graves were discovered on Monday near Jebel Fankat during operations conducted after the Sudanese army retook the area from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its allies. He said that the victims had been executed by the RSF during its occupation of Kurmuk.
The New Arab could not independently verify the circumstances of the deaths or responsibility for the killings.
The discovery comes more than a month after the Sudanese army retook Kurmuk on 8 July following fighting with the RSF and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) faction led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu.
The RSF and SPLM-N had seized Kurmuk on 24 March as part of an offensive across the Blue Nile region, opening a new front in Sudan's more than three-year war.
Jebel Fankat, where the graves were found, had been used by the RSF as a position for launching suicide drones during the battle for the town, according to al-Faki.
The reported presence of health workers among the bodies has also renewed attention on earlier allegations of attacks on medical facilities during the RSF's capture of Kurmuk.
In March, the Sudan Doctors Network accused RSF fighters of looting health facilities, destroying the town's main hospital and assaulting medical workers after entering Kurmuk.
The independent medical group said equipment and supplies were stolen and one health worker was critically injured, while thousands of residents fled the area. The RSF did not respond at the time to the network's allegations.
A new front in Sudan's war
Fighting in Blue Nile intensified earlier this year after the RSF formed a military alliance with al-Hilu's SPLM-N, pushing the war into territory along Sudan's borders with Ethiopia and South Sudan.
The alliance captured a string of towns and military positions before the army launched a counteroffensive, gradually advancing towards Kurmuk and retaking the town in July.
Kurmuk, close to the Ethiopian border, has long held strategic importance because of its position along cross-border routes. The town has repeatedly changed hands during Sudan's previous civil wars.
This year's fighting again sent tens of thousands of people fleeing Kurmuk and surrounding areas, placing further pressure on communities elsewhere in Blue Nile.
The graves reported this week are not the first to emerge from territory retaken during Sudan's war.
Bodies showing signs of execution have previously been found after government forces regained territory around Khartoum and Gezira, while rights groups and investigators have documented killings, torture and arbitrary detention by parties to the conflict.
Sudan's war began in April 2023 after the collapse of a power-sharing arrangement between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
More than three years later, the conflict has spread across much of the country, killing tens of thousands of people and displacing millions. Both the RSF and forces aligned with the army have faced allegations of war crimes and other serious abuses.