UN Security Council members have been inundated with reports of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces’ (RSF) killings in Sudan’s el-Fasher and have expressed concern that the city has “descended into an even darker hell.”
After compelled Sudan’s army to leave its final stronghold in the western Darfur region on Sunday, the RSF took control of the state’s capital, El-Fasher.
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At a Security Council emergency session on Thursday, assistant secretary-general of the United Nations for Africa, Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, said, “The situation is simply horrifying.”
She claimed that there have been credible reports of widespread executions, summary executions, and house-to-house searches carried out by civilians as they attempted to flee.
“The situation is chaotic,” he declared. The number of civilians killed is difficult to calculate in this context. No one is safe in El-Fasher, despite promises to protect civilians, she said. There is no safe exit route for city residents.
According to the humanitarian chief of the United Nations, residents of the city were being subjected to “horrors.”
According to Tom Fletcher, the city has “descended into an even darker hell” and is “already the scene of catastrophic levels of human suffering.”
According to Fletcher, there were “credible reports of widespread executions after Rapid Support Forces fighters entered the city.”
“The horror is continuing as we sit here today, not that we can hear the screams. People are being mutilated and killed with utter impunity, and women and girls are being raped.
Recalls of the attacks are made by survivors.
An RSF siege had forced hundreds of thousands of people inside without food or essentials for 18 months prior to Sudan’s army withdrew from the city.
More than 36, 000 people have reportedly fled on foot to Tawila, a town that is 70 kilometers (43 miles) west of San Diego, and has already taken shelter from 650, 000 displaced people.
Fatima Abdulrahman, a woman who had fled from El-Fasher, reported to Al Jazeera from Tawila, “There was a lot of shelling.” Shells have also affected me personally. My son was paralyzed and my daughter was killed by screaming. My body has a lot of wounds and swelling.
El-Fasher’s departure from the RSF could signal yet another Sudan’s division, more than a decade after its creation. The most recent conflict began in Khartoum in April 2023 when tensions between the military and RSF erupted into fighting. More than 12 million people have been displaced and tens of thousands of have been killed in the conflict that followed.
Sudan’s ambassador to the UN, Al-Harith Idriss Al-Harith Mohamed, stated to the Security Council, “This is not an isolated incident.” Instead, it is a continuation of this militia’s ongoing slaughter and ethnic cleansing since its uprising in April 2023.
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Hiba Morgan from Khartoum reported for Al Jazeera that thousands of people are still attempting to flee El-Fasher. The International Organization for Migration estimates that the conflict has caused more than 652, 000 people to be internally displaced.
A woman displaced from El-Fasher, Aisha Ismael, told Al Jazeera from Tawila, “Shelling and drone attacks were happening all the time. When we hid in the homes, they would fire back at us all day and night.
fears that the situation will get worse
As more internally displaced people leave El-Fasher and the supply of food and medicine continue to decline, aid workers in Tawila worry.
According to Mary Brace, technical protection advisor for Nonviolent Peaceforce, “the conditions are catastrophic, as we’ve been hearing.” There is no guarantee of safe passage for civilians trying to reach Tawila because the conflict is still ongoing.
Food, water, and emergency medical attention are provided to those fleeing El-Fasher in the immediate aftermath of an emergency.
Brace told Al Jazeera, “The last few months have been absolutely harrowing.” “People were only discussing the extreme fear of constant bombardment,” they said. The number of people who have been forced to relocate here is simply incredible. Just extreme trauma, to be exact.
‘Genocide’
Al-Harith Mohamed referred to the egregious events in el-Fasher as “genocide by all legal standards and definitions” in a gloomy address to the UN Security Council.
According to him, “Women and girls are attacked in broad daylight,” and Sudan is inquisitive about the Security Council’s location.
The Sudanese ambassador demanded that the UN impose a year-old arms embargo on the RSF, designate the organization as a “terrorist,” demand that the paramilitary group leave El-Fasher, impose a “terrorist” designation, and sanction any outside forces supporting the RSF.
