The burials range from small clusters to sites containing dozens of bodies, an anonymous Sudanese official has said

At least 117 mass graves have been discovered across the Sudanese capital Khartoum, amid escalating civil conflict, local news agency Sudan Tribune reported on Saturday. 

A state government official, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said that the bodies were buried in improvised locations, including homes and open streets, because conventional cemeteries are now overrun or inaccessible due to the fighting.

The graves vary significantly in size, with some containing only a few bodies and others reportedly holding dozens.

Earlier this year, authorities began the process of exhuming bodies from mass graves in parts of Omdurman, the second-largest city of the country. In May, 465 bodies of civilians were also discovered in the Al-Salihah area of Omdurman.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by fierce fighting between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), with both factions vying for control amid a stalled transition to civilian rule.

According to Reuters, citing the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than four million people have fled Sudan since the outbreak of the war. 

Estimates of fatalities vary, though research from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine suggests that over 61,000 people were killed in the state of Khartoum alone during the first 14 months of the conflict. Local media have reported a death toll as high as 130,000.

READ MORE: UN aid workers killed in ambush in African state

In March, the commander of the RSF, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, declared that the country's two-year civil war was far from over, despite the national army regaining control of major infrastructure in the capital.