CAIRO/DUBAI, June 6 (Reuters) - Sudan's army said on

Thursday it would deliver a "harsh response" to an attack a day

earlier on a village by the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support

Forces that pro-democracy activists said killed more than 100

people.

The attack was the largest in a string of dozens of attacks

by RSF soldiers on small villages across the farming state after

it took control of the capital Wad Madani in December.

Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan's statement followed

accusations by the local activists that the army did not respond

to pleas for help on Wednesday.

The army did not reply to a request for comment.

U.N Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned

the attack, said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.

"The Secretary-General urges all parties to refrain from any

attacks that could harm civilians or damage civilian

infrastructure," Dujarric said in a statement.

"The Secretary-General expresses his deep concern regarding

the immense suffering of the Sudanese population as a result of

the continued hostilities," he said. "He stresses that it is

high time for all parties to silence their guns across Sudan and

commit to a path towards sustainable peace."

The top U.N. official in Sudan on Thursday called for an

investigation into the attack in Wad al-Noura village in Gezira

State in central Sudan.

"Even by the tragic standards of Sudan's conflict, the

images emerging from Wad Al-Noura are heart-breaking," said U.N.

Humanitarian Coordinator Clementine Nkweta-Salami in a

statement.

She cited photos shared on social media by the Wad Madani

Resistance Committee, which has been tracking such attacks,

showing what it described as dozens of victims wrapped for

burial.

The committee said on Thursday that 104 were killed and

hundreds injured in Wad al-Noura and that the RSF was moving

towards other villages.

"Wad al-Noura village ... witnessed a genocide on Wednesday

after the RSF attacked twice," the committee said in a statement

late on Wednesday.

A telecommunications blackout prevented Reuters from

reaching medics or residents to verify the details.

The RSF began fighting with the army in April 2023 after

disputes over the integration of the two forces, and has since

taken over the capital Khartoum and most of western Sudan. It is

now seeking to advance into the centre, as United Nations

agencies say the people of Sudan are at "imminent risk of

famine".

On Thursday, the resistance committee in Karari, an

army-controlled area to the north of the capital, blamed the RSF

for artillery fire that it said had killed 22. Eyewitnesses said

that the fire had come from across the Nile in RSF-controlled

Bahri.

In a statement on Thursday, the RSF said it had attacked

army and allied militia bases around Wad al-Noura, losing eight

soldiers, and noted inaccurate reports circulating about the

incident.

The Wad Madani Resistance Committee accused the RSF on

Wednesday of using heavy artillery against civilians, looting

and driving women and children to seek refuge in the nearby town

of Managil.

"The people of Wad al-Noura called on the army to rescue

them, but they shamefully did not respond," the committee said.

The army-aligned Transitional Sovereign Council condemned

the attack.

"These are criminal acts that reflect the systematic

behaviour of these militias in targeting civilians," it said in

a statement.