Khartoum – as warnings of escalating military operations continue in the city of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, amid continuous international threats to hold accountable the perpetrators of violations and atrocities in Sudan’s more than year-old war.
Residents are fleeing rocket fire and seeking safe haven without water or food amid escalating fighting in the Sudanese city of El Fasher, witnesses and aid workers said, raising fears of an all-out battle.
The city is Sudan’s last stronghold in the western Darfur region. Capturing it would be a major boost for the RSF as regional and international powers try to push the two sides to negotiate an end to the 13-month-old war.
Local residents and aid workers fear the clashes could also lead to a new round of bloodshed after ethnically motivated violence blamed on the RSF and its allies elsewhere in Darfur last year.
Many of El Fasher’s 1.6 million residents arrived during Arab-non-Arab violence that killed hundreds of thousands in the early 2000s. The RSF has its origins in the Arab Janjaweed militia, which was accused of ethnic cleansing and genocide at the time.
In the past few weeks, the RSF has come close to besieging El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, while the city is crowded with army soldiers and allied non-Arab armed groups.
According to the Ministry of Health in the Darfur region, 38 people were killed and 280 injured during ongoing clashes between the army and the support forces in El Fasher.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said on Thursday that the city’s El Fasher South hospital had received 489 dead and wounded since May 10, including 64 deaths, but added that the real number was much higher.SLA spokesman Sadiq Ali al-Nur said the RSF carried out a new attack on El Fasher on Tuesday morning, accusing it of firing rockets and heavy artillery at civilian-populated neighborhoods.
The attack targeted civilian institutions, hospitals and public facilities, killing a number of civilians, including women and children, and seriously wounding dozens, he said.
Eyewitnesses reported the deployment of snipers in the eastern and northern parts of the city, confirming casualties following heavy artillery shelling in the Dar al-Salem neighborhood, east of the city, where the Rapid Support Forces are stationed and the two sides exchange attacks.
The EU has threatened to use its full tools, including targeted sanctions, to stop the culture of impunity in the country and move towards a peaceful resolution of the conflict.
EU threatens sanctions against perpetrators
In a joint statement, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and crisis management commissioner Janez Linarcic condemned the attacks in El Fasher.
The intensification of fighting on the outskirts of El Fasher and within El Fasher exacerbates an already catastrophic humanitarian situation and has a tragic impact on civilians.
He condemned indiscriminate attacks by both sides, including on Babiker Nahar Children’s Hospital, and expressed the EU’s grave concern about the lack of medical supplies and medicines at El Fasher South Hospital, the only functioning hospital in the entire state.
The parties to the conflict are blocking the delivery of aid and depriving more than 800,000 civilians trapped in El Fasher of assistance since April last year, he said.
The European statement noted the obligations of both sides under international humanitarian law to protect civilians, pointing out that denying access to food, health care and humanitarian aid is a clear violation of international law, and may amount to a war crime.
He also called on the parties to the conflict to allow immediate, unconditional and unhindered humanitarian access to the entire territory and population, adding: “We are horrified to read from the Coordination Office.
“We are horrified to read from OCHA that so far, only 39 humanitarian trucks have arrived in El Fasher, drastically limiting the flow of aid and depriving hundreds of people in need of life-saving assistance.”
He urged the warring parties to end the armed conflict across Sudan and de-escalate hostilities around El Fasher, reiterating the EU’s commitment to ensuring that those who commit atrocities, commanders who obstruct the delivery of humanitarian aid and fail in their obligations to protect civilians are held accountable.
At the same time, the President of Sudan’s Sovereign Council, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, received a phone call from the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk.
According to the Sudanese Sovereign Council, Al-Burhan affirmed the commitment of the Government of Sudan to human rights issues and to all international conventions and covenants that preserve human rights.
He said that the Sudanese Armed Forces work professionally and are based on well-established laws consistent with international norms and conventions that preserve human rights and work to protect civilians.
He affirmed the readiness of the Sudan to cooperate with OHCHR and welcomed the visit of the independent expert on human rights to the Sudan.
Source (Agency) /Al-Yurae
