EU launches aid flights to Sudan’s Darfur as humanitarian crisis escalates

RSF takeover of Darfur’s el-Fasher makes ‘catastrophic situation’ adjacent worse. Now Kordofan astatine hazard of aforesaid atrocities.

The European Union has launched an “air bridge” to bring 8 planeloads of humanitarian assistance into Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region.

The European Commission’s section overseeing overseas assistance unveiled the measurement connected Monday and said the flights volition transportation 3.5 cardinal euros ($4.1m) of “life-saving supplies” to the occidental region, wherever “mass atrocities, starvation and displacement” person near millions of radical successful urgent need.

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The archetypal formation near connected Friday, delivering astir 100 tonnes of assistance from “EU humanitarian stockpiles and spouse organisations”, the commission’s Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations said successful a statement.

Further flights volition proceed passim this period and January, it said, listing water, structure materials, and sanitation, hygiene and wellness items among the supplies being transported to “one of the world’s hardest places for assistance organisations to reach”.

It noted that the autumn of North Darfur’s capital, el-Fasher, which was seized by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) successful precocious October, marked a “major escalation of an already catastrophic humanitarian situation” and has made assistance entree adjacent harder.

The RSF took power of el-Fasher aft an 18-month siege that chopped residents disconnected from food, medicine and different captious supplies, prompting more than 100,000 radical to flee, galore to the municipality of Tawila, which has go the epicentre of the region’s spiralling humanitarian crisis.

Those who fled el-Fasher reported wide killings, kidnappings and wide acts of sexual violence arsenic the RSF raided the city. United Nations quality rights main Volker Turk accused the radical of committing “the gravest of crimes”.

Growing fears of much atrocities

Sudan was plunged into chaos successful April 2023 erstwhile a powerfulness conflict betwixt the subject and the RSF exploded into unfastened warring successful the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere successful the country.

Since the RSF took power of el-Fasher, which was the military’s past stronghold successful Darfur, warring has moved eastwards to the Kordofan portion arsenic the RSF and its allies question to instrumentality power of Sudan’s cardinal corridor.

The paramilitary has present acceptable its sights connected Kadugli, the superior of South Kordofan State; Dilling, besides successful South Kordofan; and the North Kordofan State capital, el-Obeid. They prevarication connected a north-south axis betwixt the borderline with South Sudan and the nationalist capital, Khartoum.

El-Obeid besides lies connected a cardinal road that connects Darfur to Khartoum, which the service recaptured successful March.

The UN has repeatedly warned that the Kordofan portion is successful information of witnessing a repetition of the atrocities that unfolded successful el-Fasher.

With the RSF successful power of each of Darfur’s large cities, Sudan successful effect is divided successful two. The service holds the centre, eastbound and northbound portion the RSF and its allies power the westbound and parts of the south.