"The Janjaweed militia (paramilitaries) committed a new massacre in the town of Hilaliya in Al-Jazira state over the past two days, resulting in 120 martyrs so far, killed either by gunfire or due to food poisoning and lack of medical care affecting hundreds of civilians," the ministry said in a statement.

The army-backed government routinely refers to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) it has been fighting since April 2023 as Janjaweed, an infamous militia recruited by the then government in Khartoum to suppress an ethnic minority rebellion in the western region of Darfur two decades ago.

The Sudan's Doctors Union said that "after looting and stealing all the possessions of residents in Hilaliya, the militia detained people inside mosques, only allowing them to leave after paying large sums, which are impossible to afford after the extensive looting and theft".

Witnesses say that the RSF has imposed a two-week siege on the town, preventing residents from leaving.

The RSF recently intensified attacks against civilians in Al-Jazira state after one of its key commanders defected to the regular army.

Last month, at least 200 people were killed in the state, which is under army control, according to an AFP tally based on medical and activist sources. The United Nations said that 135,000 civilians were displaced.

The conflict in Sudan pits the regular army, under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, against the RSF, led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

It has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 11 million, 3.1 million of them as refugees abroad, according to the International Organization for Migration.