Amid escalating violence, more than 36,000 people have fled Sudan’s El Fasher since Saturday, mostly on foot, to Tawila, a nearby town already sheltering over 652,000 displaced people, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
In just two days, more than 26,000 people have been forced to flee the city following intense fighting, according to IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM).
Since the powerful paramilitary group made a major incursion into the city last week, the UN human rights office has received “horrendous accounts of summary executions, mass killings, rapes, attacks against humanitarian workers, looting, abductions and forced displacement,” said Seif Magango, spokesperson for the UN human rights office.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a militia that emerged from the genocidal violence of the Darfur conflict two decades ago, has been locked in a brutal war with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) since April 2023.
Sudan has now become the site of the world’s largest humanitarian and displacement crisis on record, with about 14 million people displaced from a population of 51 million. Famine is spreading, while outbreaks of cholera and other deadly diseases continue to rise.
The RSF seized control of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, following a 500-day siege that forced Sudan’s army to withdraw earlier this week. Distressing reports have emerged of atrocities committed inside the Saudi Maternity Hospital and in nearby neighbourhoods such as Dara Jawila and Al-Matar, where the sick and wounded were allegedly killed in buildings being used as temporary medical centres.
According to UNICEF, amid escalating violence, an estimated 130,000 children in Al Fasher, Sudan, are at a high risk of grave rights violations, with reports of abduction, killing and maiming, and sexual violence.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that around 460 patients and their companions were killed during the massacre. “These extremely grave allegations raise urgent questions as to the circumstances of these killings in what should be places of safety,” said UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Seif Magango, calling for an independent, transparent, and prompt investigation to ensure justice.
The UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) has also received alarming reports of sexual violence from humanitarian partners on the ground.
Humanitarian workers and local volunteers assisting vulnerable communities in El Fasher have also been targeted in the ongoing violence.
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