The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group that waged a brutal civil war with the Sudanese army, have repeatedly shelled its facilities in southwest Sudan, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).
“Humanitarian staff, assets, operations, and supplies should never be a target.” The UN agency stated on X on Thursday that this must stop right away.
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The Sudanese army’s final significant city in the Darfur region is El-Fasher. Despite international warnings about the potential for violence in a city that serves as a major humanitarian hub for the five Darfur states, the army and RSF have been engaged in intense fighting since May 2024.
The RSF has been launching regular attacks on El-Fasher and two major famine-hit camps for displaced people on its outskirts for more than a year. It is located more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) southwest of Khartoum, which is where the army has been attempting to seize control of.
The Health Ministry in Khartoum state on Thursday reported 942 new cholera infections and 25 deaths, a rise from 1, 177 cases and 45 deaths the day before, adding to humanitarian woes on the ground.
Aid workers claim that the impact of the cholera outbreak is worsening as a result of the nearly total demise of health services, with about 90% of hospitals in key war zones no longer serving.
In 12 of Sudan’s 18 states, at least 1, 700 deaths have been reported since August 2024, including at least 1,700 deaths. As a result of more than two years of fighting between the army and the RSF, Kartova has seen 7,700 cases and 185 deaths, including more than 1, 000 infections in children under five.
The Sudanese army-backed government in Khartoum state made the announcement earlier this month that all state-wide relief efforts must be registered with the government’s Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC), which oversees humanitarian operations in Sudan.
Aid workers and activists worry that these regulations will cause the country’s 25 million-person hunger crisis to worsen as a result of a crackdown on local relief workers.
Former leader Omar al-Bashir, according to aid organizations, local relief volunteers, and experts, gave the HAC more authority to register, monitor, and, according to critics, impose restrictions on local and Western aid organizations in 2006.
Two months after retaking the capital’s heart from the paramilitaries, the army-backed government announced last week that it had evacuated RSF fighters from their final bases in Khartoum state.
However, the city’s sanitation and health systems are still deteriorating.
Source: Aljazeera
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