At least 123 people have died over more than two weeks of fierce combat between Sudan’s military and the infamous paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) over el-Fasher, a key city in the western Darfur area. An international relief agency, Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières), claims that the violence has also injured about 930 people.
“This indicates the fierce intensity of the fighting,” said the group. “We insist the warring parties do more to safeguard citizens.”
The fighting in el-Fasher, the provincial seat of North Darfur, has become much more intense. According to UN reports, thousands of people have been compelled to leave their houses in search of peace from the fighting. Supported by Arab militias known as janjaweed, the city—which is still the military’s last bastion in the vast Darfur territory—has become the focal focus of the continuous conflict between the military and the RSF.
Rising tensions between the military leadership and the RSF set Sudan’s conflict ablaze in April of last year. Widespread warfare in the capital, Khartoum, and many other areas of the nation resulted from this strife. Over 14,000 people have died and thousands more have been injured from the ensuing violence. Widespread reports of sexual abuse and other crimes have surfaced; rights organizations denounce these acts as war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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Sudan’s population has likewise been driven toward almost famine by the continuous strife. Earlier this month, the U.N. World Food Program cautioned that, should humanitarian relief be denied to those in need, Darfur and other areas of Sudan run significant risk of widespread famine and death.
The RSF has sharpened its efforts to take over el-Fasher in recent months. Earlier this month, the RSF besieged the city and started major attacks on its southern and eastern sectors alongside its Arab militia allies.
According to the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration, renewed conflicts were recorded on Thursday in the Abu Shouk camp for displaced people in the Salam district in the northern part of the city as well as in its southwest areas.
Sadly, on Saturday a shell struck the house of a Doctors Without Borders charity worker close to the central market, killing the worker. The victim hasn’t been named by the charity.
Clementine Nkweta-Salami, the U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, denounced the “tragic” killing and asked the fighters to stop hostilities in el-Fasher, where “hundreds of thousands of women, men, and children in North Darfur are once again caught in the crossfire of war.”
She underlined “A human tragedy of epic proportions is on the horizon, but it can, and must, be prevented”.
