The Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) have described a report by Amnesty International documenting the alleged deliberate systematic killing of civilians and destruction of property in Blue Nile state as false and lacking in evidence.

SAF spokesman, Al Swarmi Khaled Saad, told the Sudan News Agency (SUNA) on Tuesday that accusations made by the UK-based human rights group in a report called ‘We had no time to bury them’ are not based on eye-witness accounts or other evidence. He also claimed that there is no site upon which a massacre took place.

Amnesty International accused the Sudanese army in a report earlier this week of using a ‘scorched earth’ strategy – destroying all that could be useful to enemy forces – in civilian areas of the state where SAF are currently grappling with Sudanese rebel group, the SPLM-N.

Blue Nile state has been suffering from civil war since last year while residents of its neighbouring state, South Kordofan, have been fleeing civil conflict since 2011.

File photo: SAF Colonel Al Swarmi Khaled Saad

Related: Report: ‘We had no time to bury them’ (12 June 2013)