CAIROAccording to local rights groups, 40 people were killed Monday when Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces launched attacks in a famine-stricken displacement camp outside of El-Fasher, the provincial seat of North Darfur.
The RSF, which is at war with the Sudanese military, assaulted areas of the camp, targeting residents inside their homes, according to a Facebook message from the Emergency Response Rooms group operating at the Abu Shouk refugee camp. According to the community activist group that aids people all throughout Sudan, at least 19 others were hurt.
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Throughout the war, there have been numerous attacks on the Abu Shouk displacement camp, which is located outside of El-Fasher and is home to about 450,000 displaced persons. Despite regular RSF raids, el-Fasher is in the hands of the Sudanese military.
The Resistance Committees in el-Fasher, meanwhile, verified the attacks and said on Facebook that the scenario demonstrated the scope of the horrifying abuses against helpless, innocent people. Human rights activists are among the local residents who make up the Resistance Committees.
On Monday, the Yale University Humanitarian Research Lab shared satellite photos of 40 vehicles at the Abu Shouk Camp. The lab claimed that the cars were in the camp’s northwest districts, attempting to support accounts of the RSF strike.
According to Yale HRL’s report, it collected and examined images and video purportedly depicting RSF shooting at individuals as they fled while yelling and using derogatory language against certain ethnic groups.
By commanding positions spanning the el-Fasher to Kutum road north of the city and an opening in the direction of Mellit, North Darfur, the RSF appears to have blocked routes that civilians use to flee El-Fasher, according to further satellite imagery that the organization collected on Saturday.
After long-simmering tensions between the army and the RSF, the civil war in Sudan broke out in April 2023 in the capital city of Khartoum and quickly expanded throughout the nation. Over 40,000 people have been dead, up to 12 million have been displaced, and more have been driven to the verge of starvation by the war. Humanitarians say there are two camps with severe famine conditions, including the Abu Shouk camp.
According to the Sudanese army, it engaged in combat with RSF members in el-Fasher on Monday from approximately 6 a.m. till the end of the afternoon. Its social media statements asserted that it had vanquished the paramilitary group.
The army said in a statement that its forces had destroyed and torched over 16 combat vehicles and captured 34 vehicles, including armored cars, after repelling a massive attack by the terrorist militia from many directions. The forces also severely damaged the enemy’s equipment and casualties.
Without giving any more information, the RSF announced late Monday on its Telegram channel that it had advanced in el-Fasher and taken military hardware.
In apparent allusion to the RSF in Monday’s battle, Darfur Governor Mini Arko Minawi posted on Facebook that el-Fasher had defeated those who had betrayed their land.
According to the Sudan Doctors Network, the RSF has been accused of forcing more than 3,000 families from 66 communities in North Kordofan region to relocate because of combat that has been going on since early August. The group also claimed that the RSF stole their cattle and money, as well as robbed their properties. Last week, the displaced finally made their way to the provinces of Khartoum and White Nile. According to the most recent United Nations statement, 18 civilians were murdered and numerous others were injured in the recent strikes on the province’s communities.
While Edem Wosornum, the operations and advocacy director at the U.N.’s humanitarian affairs agency, raised the alarm over the situation in el-Fasher, stating that more than 60 people, primarily women and children, died from malnutrition in just one week, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric warned Monday of the extremely dire situation in Sudan.
