In Sudan, amid reports of widespread atrocities and the murder of five Red Crescent volunteers, fears have grown that paramilitaries have taken control of the important city of El-Fasher.
Reports of widespread killings that recall Darfur’s darkest days have been followed by the capture of El-Fasher, the country’s historical center.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a branch of the Janjaweed militias that were accused of genocide two decades ago, are now in charge of the city after an 18-month siege that included starvation and bombardment.
The paramilitary group, which has been fighting fiercely with the Sudanese military since April 2023, has launched a final assault on the city in recent days, seizing the army’s last positions.
Five Sudanese Red Crescent volunteers were killed on Monday in Bara, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent, and three others were missing after the RSF took control of the town on Saturday.
According to analysts, Sudan is now effectively divided along an east-west axis, with the RSF ruling Darfur while the army is based north, east, and center along the Nile and Red Sea.
El-Fasher’s fall is regarded as one of the worst genocides of the 21st century for many people because of its impact on memories of the 2000s, when the Janjaweed massacred villages and killed hundreds of thousands of people.
Videos that allegedly show RSF fighters carrying out executions and abusing civilians have been shared online since the city’s fall on Sunday.
A committee will be established to verify the veracity of videos and allegations, according to a coalition led by RSF, which claims that the army has “fabricated” many of the videos.
The African Union criticized “escalating violence” and “alleged war crimes,” while the UN issued warnings about “ethnically motivated violations and atrocities.”
The army-allied Joint Forces accuse the RSF of killing at least 2, 000 civilians, according to pro-democracy groups, as “the worst violence and ethnic cleansing” since Sunday.
More than 26 000 people reportedly fled El-Fasher on foot in search of Tawila, which is 70 kilometers west, according to the UN.
The UN’s migration agency claims that 177, 000 civilians are still imprisoned in El-Fasher as a result of the RSF’s construction of a 56-kilometer (35-mile) earthen berm, which would block access to food, medicine, and escape routes.
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Source: Aljazeera
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