UN says more than 700 people killed in Sudan siege of al-Fashar united nations news
The UN human rights chief has said more than 700 people have been killed in al-Fashar in Sudan’s North Darfur state since May, and urged the paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF) to end its siege of the town.
The siege and “relentless fighting are destroying lives on a massive scale every day,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement on Friday.
“This worrying situation cannot continue. Rapid Support Forces must end this terrible siege.
The UN rights office said it had documented at least 782 civilian deaths and more than 1,143 injured since May, citing evidence based partly on interviews with people who fled the area. It said the deaths occurred amid regular and intense shelling by the RSF in densely populated residential areas, as well as repeated airstrikes by Sudanese armed forces.
The United Nations Human Rights Office said that such attacks on civilians could amount to war crimes. Both sides have repeatedly denied deliberately attacking civilians and accused each other of doing so in and around al-Fashar.
The conflict has been going on for more than 18 months between the Sudanese army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF led by his former deputy Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo. The war has created a deep humanitarian crisis with more than 12 million people driven from their homes and UN agencies struggling to provide relief.
El-Fashar is one of the most active front lines between the RSF and the Sudanese army and its allies, who are fighting for the last foothold in the Darfur region. Observers fear an RSF victory there could bring ethnic reprisals, as happened in West Darfur last year.
wfp workers killed
The city has faced intense attacks in the past week.
Nine people were killed and 20 wounded in paramilitary shelling on the city’s main hospital last Friday, the head of the World Health Organization said.
Further RSF attacks on hospitals and other parts of the city on Wednesday left 10 civilians dead and 20 wounded, according to pro-democracy activists.
At least 38 people were also killed in a paramilitary drone strike in the city center on Sunday.
The nearby Zamzam camp, where experts say famine is looming among a population of more than half a million people, has come under RSF artillery fire over the past two weeks, forcing thousands to leave the camp Is.
The Turks warned that any large-scale attack on Zamzam or al-Fashar would “increase civilian suffering to catastrophic levels”.
“All efforts, including by the international community, must be made to stop such an attack and end the siege,” he said.
Fighting continues in other parts of the country as well. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday condemned the killing of three World Food Program (WFP) staff in an attack a day earlier.
Guterres spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the agency’s field office in Yabus, in Blue Nile state, was hit by aerial bombardment.
“The Secretary-General condemns all attacks on United Nations and aid personnel and facilities. He demands a thorough investigation,” Dujarric said in a statement.
The comments came shortly after WFP announced the killings, expressing “outrage” in a statement on X.
The incident, Dujarric said, “underscores the devastating impact Sudan’s brutal conflict is having on millions of people in need and on humanitarians trying to deliver life-saving aid to them”.
He said 2024 is the “deadliest year on record” for aid workers in Sudan, and reiterated calls for an immediate ceasefire.
