An international organization announced on Saturday that there were deaths and injuries, in addition to the displacement of 1,500 families in the city of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state in western Sudan, as a result of the ongoing clashes between the army and the Rapid Support Forces.
The International Organization for Migration said in a statement: “We received preliminary information that 1,500 families in El Fasher fled their homes, Saturday, and displacement occurred from the Abu Shouk camp for the displaced, and the neighborhoods of peace, unity and rescue, and there were reports of deaths and injuries (whose number was not specified) among civilians.”
“Clashes over the past two days near Abu Shouk camp and al-Salam neighborhood north of El Fasher led to the displacement of 400 families to other locations inside the city,” the statement said.
“Seven houses were burned, and 15 houses were partially damaged as a result of the clashes,” he said.
Since May 10, the city has been witnessing clashes between the army, backed by the armed movements forces that signed a peace agreement, against the Rapid Support Forces, despite international warnings of battles in El Fasher, which is the center of humanitarian operations for all Darfur states.
On Saturday, Darfur Governor Minni Arko Minawi accused the Rapid Support Forces of “committing ethnic cleansing through indiscriminate shelling of homes and hospitals with the aim of displacing people outside the city.”
He added on his account on the X platform: On Friday alone, “the number of wounded who arrived at the southern El Fasher hospital reached 82, most of them women, children and the elderly, and 30 deaths.”
Besides being the capital of North Darfur state, El Fasher is the center of the Darfur region, consisting of 5 states, its largest city, and the only one among other state capitals in the region that has not fallen to the Rapid Support Forces in their armed conflict against the army.
Adam Rahhal, spokesman for the General Coordination of IDP and Refugee Camps (Ahliya), said in a statement: “The frequency of violence has increased in El Fasher, especially in Abu Shouk camp, which contains about 250,000 people, most of whom were forced to leave the camp due to indiscriminate and deliberate rocket fire. Hundreds of them were killed and injured.”
“There is frightening narrowing and searches at the gates and asking questions of colour and tribe when citizens in the city go out to other areas,” he said.
On Thursday, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said reports from El Fasher were “appalling.”
“Deadly attacks on civilians in El Fasher, terrifying accounts of being targeted, people so scared of checkpoints that they don’t dare to flee,” Grandi said.
There have been growing UN and international calls to spare the country a humanitarian catastrophe that could push millions into starvation and death due to food shortages due to the fighting, which has spread to 12 of the country’s 18 states.
Since mid-April 2023, the army led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support led by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo “Hemedti” have been fighting a war that has left about 15,000 dead and more than 8 million
Displaced and refugee, according to the UN.
(Anatolia)/Al-Yurae
