Tens of thousands of Sudanese have fled to overcrowded camps to escape reported atrocities by a paramilitary force since it captured el-Fasher in the western Darfur region, an aid group said Saturday, and the UN human rights chief warned that many others are still trapped.
Those who reach shelter in Tawila, about 70km from el-Fasher, find themselves stranded in a barren area with barely enough tents, many of them improvised from patched tarps and sheets, according to a video posted by the group Sudan’s IDPs and Refugee Camps. It shows children running across the area as a few adults carry a large pot of food, hoping it will be enough to feed the growing crowds of displaced.
Since the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized el-Fasher from the rival military on Oct. 26, more than 16,200 people have fled to the camps in Tawila, said Adam Rojal, spokesperson for the aid group.
Photo: AFP
The International Organization for Migration estimates that about 82,000 people had fled the city and surrounding areas as of Tuesday last week, heading to safe spots including Tawila, an area already overcrowded with the displaced from previous attacks, with some making the journey on foot.
Abu Bakr Hammad, director of medical activities with aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Tawila Hospital, on Saturday said that the hospital has received at least 1,500 people who fled el-Fasher since Oct. 26, suffering from a range of injuries including broken fractures.
The RSF and the Sudanese army have been at war since April 2023, following simmering tensions over control of Africa’s third-largest nation. At least 40,000 people have been killed, according to the WHO, although the actual toll might be many times higher.
Some 12 million people have been displaced, and nearly half the population is facing acute food insecurity.
The RSF seized el-Fasher after an 18-month siege. The paramilitary rampaged through the Saudi Hospital in the city, killing more than 450 people, according to the WHO, and went house to house, killing civilians and committing sexual assaults.
The RSF has denied killing anyone at the Saudi hospital, but testimonies from those fleeing, online videos and satellite images offer an apocalyptic vision of the attack.
MSF on Friday said that 300 people arrived in Tawila on Thursday alone after fleeing el-Fasher.
MSF teams reported “extremely high levels of malnutrition among children and adults.”
The displaced in Tawila are in urgent need of food, medicine, shelter materials and psychosocial support, Rojal told The Associated Press, adding that families often survive on just one or two meals a day.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said that those left behind in el-Fasher are at risk.
“Today, traumatized civilians are still trapped inside el-Fasher and are being prevented from leaving,” he said in Geneva on Friday.
“I fear that the abominable atrocities such as summary executions, rape and ethnically motivated violence are continuing within the city,” he added. “And for those who manage to flee, the violence does not end, as the exit routes themselves have been the scenes of unimaginable cruelty.”
On Thursday, the RSF said it has agreed to a humanitarian truce proposed by a US-led mediator group known as the Quad.
Meanwhile, the army said it welcomes the Quad’s proposal, but would only agree to it if the RSF withdraws from civilian areas and give up their weapons.
The fighting has spread across Darfur and to the neighboring Kordofan region, with both emerging as the epicenter of Sudan’s war over the past months. Last week, a drone attack in el-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan province, killed at least 40 people and wounded dozens more.
A military official on Saturday said that the army intercepted two Chinese-made drones that targeted el-Obeid that morning. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the information.
Jalale Getachew Birru, an analyst for East Africa with Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, in a statement on Friday said that the fall of el-Fasher and rising violence in North Kordofan mark a strategic victory for the RSF, but exacerbate human suffering.
He estimated that at least 2,000 people were killed across Sudan in a single week between Oct. 26 and Nov. 1.
“These events not only deepen Sudan’s humanitarian crisis but also signal the RSF’s growing capacity to expand toward central Sudan, threatening to reverse the success of the Sudanese armed forces and returning the violence to the relatively calm central Sudan,” Birru said.
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