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23-12-2024
GENEVA/ KHARTOUM: More than 700 people have been killed in al-Fashir in Sudan’s North Darfur state since May, the UN human rights chief said on Friday, imploring the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces to halt a siege of the city.
The siege and “the relentless fighting are devastating lives every day on a massive scale,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement.
“This alarming situation cannot continue. The Rapid Support Forces must end this horrible siege.”
The UN rights office said it had documented the deaths of at least 782 civilians and more than 1,143 injured since May, citing evidence based partly on interviews of those who had fled the area. It said the casualties came amid regular and intensive shelling by the RSF of densely populated residential areas as well as recurrent airstrikes by the Sudanese Armed Forces.
Such attacks on civilians may amount to war crimes, the UN human rights office said. Both sides have repeatedly denied deliberately attacking civilians and have accused each other of doing so in al-Fashir and its surroundings.
Sudan’s army and the RSF have been locked in conflict for more than 18 months, triggering a profound humanitarian crisis in which more than 12 million people have been driven from their homes and UN agencies have struggled to deliver relief.
Al-Fashir is one of the most active frontlines between the RSF and the Sudanese army and its allies, which are fighting to maintain a last foothold in the Darfur region. Observers fear that an RSF victory there could bring ethnic retribution, as happened in West Darfur last year.
Earlier this month the RSF attacked the main hospital, killing at least nine people, locals said. Nearby Zamzam camp, where experts say a famine is occurring among a population of more than half a million people, has also come under RSF artillery fire over the last two weeks, forcing thousands to leave the camp.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces attacked the main still-functioning hospital in al-Fashir, in Sudan’s North Darfur state on Friday, killing nine people and injuring 20, according to a local health official and activists.
A drone fired four missiles at the hospital overnight, destroying wards, waiting areas and other facilities, said state health minister Ibrahim Khatir and the al-Fashir resistance committee, a pro-democracy group that monitors violence in the area.
Images they shared showed debris scattered over hospital beds and damaged ceilings and walls. The RSF says it does not target civilians and could not immediately be reached for comment.
Sudan’s army and the RSF have been locked in conflict for more than 18 months, triggering a profound humanitarian crisis in which more than 12 million people have been driven from their homes and UN agencies have struggled to deliver relief.
Al-Fashir is one of the most active frontlines between the RSF and the Sudanese army and its allies, which are fighting to maintain a last foothold in the Darfur region. Observers fear that an RSF victory there could bring ethnic retribution as happened in West Darfur last year.
Nearby Zamzam camp, where experts say a famine is occurring among a population of more than half a million people, has also come under RSF artillery fire over the last two weeks, forcing thousands to leave the camp.
The army has responded with airstrikes that have targeted al-Fashir and surrounding towns. This week it staged one of the deadliest attacks in the war, killing more than 100 in the town of Kabkabiya. At the UN Security Council earlier this week, Sudan accused the United Arab Emirates of carrying out drone attacks for the RSF from Amdjarass in Chad, targeting al-Fashir and other cities in the north of Sudan as well as supplying weaponry and training. (Int’l News Desk)
