United Nations –

Two senior United Nations officials sounded the alarm on Friday that an attack on Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, could be imminent and could trigger deadly inter-communal clashes across Darfur.

“In Darfur, recent reports indicate that Médecins Sans Frontières may be imminent in launching an attack on El Fasher, triggering the emergence of new fronts in the conflict,” UN political and peacebuilding chief Rosemary DiCarlo told the Security Council. concerns.”

RSF is the Rapid Support Forces, a rebel militia that has been fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for the past year. The two generals leading them were once allies of Sudan’s transitional government after the 2021 coup but have now become rivals for power.

The war broke out in the capital Khartoum last April. The outbreak has since spread to other parts of the country, forcing more than 8 million people to leave their homes in search of safety. Nearly 2 million of them fled Sudan to neighboring countries. Of those left behind, 25 million are in need of humanitarian assistance.

Di Carlo said clashes broke out between Médecins Sans Frontières and members of the Joint Protection Force, which is allied to the Sudanese Armed Forces, in the strategic town of Melit north of El Fasher.

“The fighting in El Fasher threatens to spark bloody inter-communal conflict across Darfur,” she said. “It will also further hamper the delivery of humanitarian aid in areas already on the brink of famine.”

El Fasher is an established humanitarian center. Fighting there will make storing and delivering aid more dangerous and complex.

“Beyond Darfur, Greater Khartoum remains the center of fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and Forces Without Borders,” DiCarlo added. “Encouraged by recent gains, the Sudanese Armed Forces have stepped up their campaign against Khartoum. Air strikes in Toumu, the Kordofan region and parts of Darfur.”

The United Nations says the violence threatens 800,000 civilians living in El Fasher and threatens to trigger more violence in other parts of Darfur, where more than 9 million people are in need of humanitarian aid.

“On 13 April, following weeks of heightened tensions and airstrikes, Médecins Sans Frontières-affiliated militias attacked and burned villages west of El Fasher,” Edem Wosornu told council members. “Since then, there have been continued reports of clashes in the east and north of the city, resulting in the displacement of more than 36,000 people,” said the Director of Operations and Advocacy at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

She said medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) had reported that more than a hundred trauma patients had arrived at medical facilities in El Fasher in recent days, but said the number of civilian casualties was likely to be much higher.

The last battle in Darfur

A report released Friday by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Laboratory said satellite imagery and open-source information indicate that Médecins Sans Frontières is either close to El Fasher or has entered its eastern and northeastern communities.

“At least 11 villages are confirmed to have been burned on the western approach to El Fasher,” Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the laboratory, told VOA.

He said based on their assessment, Médecins Sans Frontières likely controls the northern, eastern and western roads to El Fasher, and they had credible reports that Sudanese forces had to be resupplied by air over the past week.

“This indicates that the Singapore Armed Forces have assessed that they have no ground routes for supplies or escape,” Raymond said.

This means civilians are also trapped, including thousands of African Zaghawa, Masalit, Fur and other non-Arab ethnic groups.

“This is the last battle in Darfur,” Raymond said. “If the RSF wins, then they will be able to complete the genocide they started in the early 2000s and all signs are consistent with their intentions.”

He said a victory for El Fasher would be crucial, giving Forces Without Borders control of all regional capitals in Darfur and establishing a stronghold from which they could compete with the remainder of the Sudanese Armed Forces in the coming years. Troops fighting.

Darfur witnessed large-scale ethnic violence, crimes against humanity and genocide in the early 2000s, when Arab Janjaweed militias targeted Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa.