The relentless power struggle between the army and the RSF has killed tens of thousands of people and forced more than 11 million from their homes since the conflict began in April 2023.

UN World Food Programme Chief Cindy McCain visited the aid center in Port Sudan this week and told the BBC the country could face its biggest ever humanitarian crisis if a ceasefire is not achieved.

He warned that millions of people could die of hunger.

Reports of the attack by paramilitary fighters in Gezira come after the RSF’s top commander in the province, Abu Aqla Kayka, recently left for his army.

Hala al-Karib, Head of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa, said: “The RSF launched a campaign of revenge in the areas under the control of Abu Kayka. They plundered and killed civilians who resisted, and raped women and little girls.” Siha) told the BBC.

Siha, who has documented gender-based violence during the war in Sudan, said she had confirmed three cases of suicide by women in Gezira state last week.

Ms Karib said two were in Al Seriha village and the third in Ruffa town.

The sister of a woman who committed suicide in the village told Siha that the incident happened after she was raped by RSF soldiers in front of her father and brother. Two men were later killed.

Last week, a series of videos were shared online showing dozens of bodies wrapped in blankets from the alleged RSF massacre in Al Seriha.

BBC Verify was able to match the location of these images to the courtyard of a mosque in Al Seriha.

Ms Karib said evidence of suicides came from only two areas out of some 50 villages recently attacked, adding that the figure could be higher because mobile communications were patchy.

A female activist from Gezira, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear for her life, told the BBC that she corroborated the accounts of women taking their lives after their husbands were killed by the RSF.

He had seen WhatsApp messages from a woman describing how her sister had committed suicide after being raped by RSF militiamen in Al Seriha, who also killed her five brothers and some of her uncles.

But like Siha, she said it was impossible to verify social media accounts of mass suicides of women fearing rape due to communication problems.

An 80-page UN report published on Tuesday said at least 400 survivors of conflict-related sexual violence have been documented since the start of hostilities through July 2024, and the real figure is suspected to be much higher.

“The extent of sexual violence we have documented in Sudan is staggering,” said Mohamed Chande Othman, the UN chief of the panel that prepared the report.

The UN said the victims it documented ranged in age from 8 to 75, many needed medical treatment, but most hospitals and clinics were destroyed in the fighting.

RSF spokesman Nizar Sayed Ahmed told the BBC: “These accusations are baseless and not based on evidence.

“The UN needs to send an investigative team to Sudan to find out the facts on the ground,” he said.

Ms Karib told the BBC Siha had tried to stay in touch with the six women, who were afraid of RSF’s advances and were considering taking their own lives.

He said Siha gave them psychological support as the activists tried to figure out how to move them to safer places.

He also said they were trying to help a 13-year-old girl who was gang-raped by RSF fighters in Gezira and needed urgent medical care.

He said the girl was currently on her way from her village north of Ruffa to the town of New Halfa and had lost a lot of blood.

Additional reporting from BBC’s Anne Soy and BBC Verify’s Peter Mwai.