Saturday 21 / December / 2024
Geneva : The ongoing siege and hostilities in El Fasher, the capital of Sudan's North Darfur State, have left at least 782 civilians dead and more than 1,143 injured, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a report published on Friday.
The report further said that thousands of civilians are besieged, without guarantees of safe passage out of the city, and at risk of death or injury from indiscriminate attacks by all parties to the conflict.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk in a statement said that the "alarming situation" in the region "cannot continue" and that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) must end the "horrible siege."
Turk said, "The continuing siege of El Fasher and the relentless fighting are devastating lives everyday on a massive scale. This alarming situation cannot continue. The RSF must end this horrible siege. And I urge all parties to the conflict to stop attacks on civilians and civilian objects. I call on them to comply with their obligations and commitments under international law."
Notably, for seven months since the siege began, El Fasher has been turned into a battleground between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), backed by its allied Joint Forces - comprised of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Minni Minawi, the Justice and Equality Movement/Jibril Ibrahim, and other smaller armed groups.
The report finds that the parties have used explosive weapons in populated areas in a manner raising serious concerns regarding respect for the principle of precaution, and the prohibition of indiscriminate attacks.
The report, based on interviews conducted in October and November with 52 people who managed to flee El Fasher, and corroborated by multiple independent sources, says there has been regular and intense shelling by the RSF of densely populated residential areas, recurrent airstrikes by the SAF, and artillery shelling by both the SAF and its allied Joint Forces. It warns that attacks on civilians and civilian objects may amount to war crimes.
According to the report, during a major escalation in fighting in June, parties engaged in heavy exchanges of fire in civilian areas killing dozens of civilians. They also used homes for military purposes and attacked and looted markets. "Victims died inside their houses, in markets, in the vicinity of hospitals and in the streets," says the report.
In one neighbourhood, Al-Thawra Janoub, it says, "residents were unable to collect the bodies of those who died in the streets for days, due to the continuous shelling and heavy exchanges of fire."
Al-Saudi Maternity Hospital, currently the only remaining public hospital in El Fasher capable of providing surgical operations and sexual and reproductive health services, has been shelled repeatedly by the RSF, says the report.
The report also documents repeated RSF attacks on camps hosting internally displaced people, in particular Zamzam and Abu Shouk.
Zamzam IDP camp, located about 15 kilometres south of El Fasher town and currently home to hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people, has seen an increased presence of the SAF-allied Joint Forces and has been shelled six times by the RSF, reportedly leaving at least 15 displaced people dead. This, coupled with reports of increased mobilisation of fighters by the parties to the conflict along tribal lines across Darfur, indicates preparations for further hostilities may be underway.
"Any large-scale attack on Zamzam camp and El Fasher city will catapult civilian suffering to catastrophic levels, deepening the already dire humanitarian situation, including famine conditions," said Turk. "All efforts must be taken, including by the international community, to prevent such an attack and to halt the siege," he added.
The UN Human Rights Chief also called on all parties to the conflict to embrace mediation efforts in good faith, with a view to the immediate cessation of hostilities.
