Concerns for civilians high after RSF claims control of Sudan’s el-Fasher

UN main Antonio Guterres warns of ‘terrible escalation’ of struggle arsenic officials dependable alarm implicit reports of civilian killings.

The United Nations has made an urgent telephone for the extortion and harmless transition of hundreds of thousands of civilians successful Sudan’s el-Fasher arsenic fighters from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary radical person claimed to person seized power of the besieged city.

UN humanitarian main Tom Fletcher connected Monday sounded the alarm amid reports of civilian casualties and forced displacement in the superior metropolis of North Darfur state.

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The RSF has been laying siege to el-Fasher for astir 18 months successful a bid to instrumentality power of the Sudanese army’s past stronghold successful the immense occidental portion of Darfur. The warring has trapped astatine slightest 250,000 civilians and forced hundreds of thousands of others to fly their homes.

“With fighters pushing further into the metropolis and flight routes chopped off, hundreds of thousands of civilians are trapped and terrified – shelled, starving, and without entree to healthcare, food, oregon safety,” Fletcher said successful a statement, describing el-Fasher arsenic being “at breaking point”.

He besides called for unimpeded humanitarian entree and harmless transition for each civilians escaping the fighting. “Ceasefire now, successful El Fasher, successful Darfur and passim Sudan,” Fletcher wrote connected societal media.

Later connected Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of a “terrible escalation”, saying the humanitarian concern successful Sudan, wherever a civilian warfare has been raging since April 2023, had go “unbearable”.

Speaking to reporters successful Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Guterres besides urged each countries that are interfering successful the struggle and those “providing weapons to the parties to the war” to halt undermining efforts to scope a ceasefire.

RSF solidifying grip connected Darfur

Observers said the seizing of el-Fasher could beryllium a imaginable turning constituent successful Sudan’s civilian war, which has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 12 cardinal and near 30 cardinal successful request of aid, making it the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

Reporting from Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan said el-Fasher’s takeover would solidify the RSF’s grip connected the entirety of Darfur.

“What this means is that the RSF has much autonomy successful the occidental region,” Morgan explained, adding that the fighters could adjacent determination for a “separation” of Darfur from the remainder of Sudan.

Despite RSF assurances of civilian protection, the paramilitary radical has faced accusations of committing atrocities successful el-Fasher.

According to the Sudan Doctors Network, the advancing RSF fighters carried retired killings of unarmed civilians connected “ethnic grounds”.

“Reports from our tract teams bespeak that the fig of victims exceeds dozens, though it remains hard to entree the affected areas owed to the implicit information illness caused by the RSF,” it said.

It was not imaginable to independently verify the statement.

Meanwhile, Minni Minnawi, the politician of Darfur, who is allied with Sudan’s army, has demanded that civilians beryllium protected from the advancing RSF.

The AFP quality bureau besides quoted Minnawi arsenic calling for an “independent probe into the violations and massacres” allegedly carried retired by the RSF.

Sudan’s authoritative quality bureau SUNA quoted Information Minister Khaled al-Aisir arsenic refuting the RSF’s assertion of an beforehand successful el-Fasher, describing it arsenic “psychological warfare” and saying the “rebellion … has collapsed and been defeated successful respective locations”.