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aid worker There was concern on Thursday that very few people had fled an attack by a paramilitary force that has seized control of a Sudanese town. Darfur The area has been secured, as hundreds of people have reportedly been killed in attacks and while fleeing.
People fleeing on foot to a town west of al-Fashar during the attack rapid aid forceWhich has been fighting with troops affiliated with the army of East African country Sudan since 2023.
The World Health Organization has already warned that 460 people have reportedly been killed in the violence at a hospital in al-Fashar. Witnesses told The Associated Press that RSF fighters were going door to door, beating and shooting people, including women and children.
Interrupted communications around al-Fashar has made it even more difficult to assess the devastation. Experts have said that satellite images also show dead bodies on the streets of the city after the RSF attack.
A small number of people are arriving in the town of Tawila, about 60 kilometers (35 miles) west of al-Fashar and not under the control of the paramilitary group, leading aid workers to fear the worst.
“The number of people reaching Tavilah is very low and this should be of concern to all of us,” said Malthide Wu, advocacy manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council, which manages the camp in Tavilah for displaced people. “Where are the rest? This explains the horror of the journey.”
The International Rescue Committee separately warned that “hundreds of thousands of people are at grave risk in and around al-Fashar.” Those who reached Tawila traveled on foot at night and told aid workers that they had been arbitrarily killed by RSF forces as they fled, leaving the area littered with dead bodies.
David Miliband, chairman of the IRC, said, “The fact that we are seeing so few people reaching Tawila safely should concern everyone. It raises an urgent alarm about what is happening to those trying to flee El Fasher.”
“Safe passage for civilians must be guaranteed, assistance must be increased and funded now, and all parties must respect their obligation to protect civilians. The world cannot turn a blind eye to another chapter of terror in Darfur.”
Attack on hospital raises concerns
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said about 460 patients and their companions were reportedly killed at the Saudi hospital in Al-Fashar on Tuesday. The AP has not been able to independently confirm the attack on the hospital and the death toll because there is still chaos and challenges communicating with people.
Darfur Governor Mini Minawi shared a video online, showing RSF fighters inside a Saudi hospital. The minute-long footage shows bloodied bodies lying on the floor. A fighter fires a shot from a Kalashnikov-style rifle at a lone man sitting above, who then falls to the floor. Other bodies could be seen outside. The AP could not independently verify the date, location or conditions under which the video was recorded.
The Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab said in a report late Tuesday that RSF fighters have continued to carry out mass killings since capturing al-Fashar.
The report, which relied on satellite imagery from Airbus, said it confirmed alleged executions and mass killings by the RSF in a detention center in the vicinity of a Saudi hospital and in a former children’s hospital in the eastern part of the city. The AP accessed and analyzed the same imagery, which showed red spots on objects and the ground at locations that the lab identified as blood and bodies.
The lab also said “systematic killings” had taken place around the Eastern Wall, which RSF built outside the city earlier this year.
RSF commander General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, who is sanctioned by the US, acknowledged “abuses” by his forces. In his first comments posted on the Telegram messaging app on Wednesday since el-Fashar’s fall, he said an investigation had been launched. He did not elaborate.
Sudan war starts in 2023
The two-year battle for control of Sudan has killed more than 40,000 people – a figure rights groups consider a significant undercount – and led to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis with more than 14 million displaced. The capture of al-Fashar by powerful Arab-led forces has stoked fears that Africa’s third-largest country could be divided again, nearly 15 years after becoming oil-rich. South Sudan Independence was achieved after years of civil war. Sudan’s army has now completely captured its capital Khartoum.
RSF is seen to be focused on Darfur, particularly al-Fashar, which its forces have been besieging for more than 500 days. The RSF has its roots in the Janjaweed militia which carried out genocide in Sudan’s West Darfur region in the early 2000s. Rights groups and the United Nations have accused the RSF and allied Arab militias of again attacking ethnic African groups in this latest war.
Since the war began, both the Sudanese army and the RSF have faced allegations of human rights abuses. Before US President Joe Biden left office, the State Department declared that the RSF has committed genocide in this current war.
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Associated Press writer John Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates contributed to this report.