The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, has condemned the reports of attacks on civilians and ethnic targeting in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state in Sudan, as horrifying.
Through his platform on “X,” Grandi called for an immediate halt to “deliberate violence against civilians” and a ceasefire.
“The reports from El Fasher in Sudan are appalling. There are bloody attacks on civilians and horrifying accounts of ethnic targeting. People are so afraid of checkpoints that they are prevented from attempting to flee,” Grandi stated.
Additionally, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Sudan announced that the only operational hospital in El Fasher has supplies to last only 10 days.
The OCHA added in a statement that more than 12 trucks carrying aid for over 100,000 people have been trying to reach El Fasher for more than a month.
Days ago, t.he Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement regarding what it described as the crimes of the Rapid Support Forces militia and its persistent commission of unprecedented atrocities against innocent civilians, targeting civilian and humanitarian facilities in several states of Sudan.
In the statement, it was stated, “In North Darfur state, following consecutive defeats suffered by the militia at the hands of the armed forces and the joint forces of peace partners, the mercenaries of the militia intensified their shelling of residential areas, displaced persons’ camps, markets, and targeted the Women and Maternity Hospital in El Fasher two days ago, injuring nine patients critically.
The Abu Shouk camp for the displaced and its shelter center continue to be subjected to daily shelling. This has resulted in dozens of civilian casualties in recent weeks, while the militia continues its ethnic cleansing crimes around El Fasher by adopting a scorched-earth policy.”
The statement emphasized, “In the past few days, the militia has committed a series of new massacres against innocent villagers in the areas of Um Ruwaba in North Kordofan, Al-Kamleen, Al-Mawliq, and Al-Huda in Al-Jazirah state, in addition to shelling residential areas in the Karari locality, Khartoum state, with long-range artillery. Seven civilians were killed yesterday as a result of the shelling.”
It was stated, “It is evident that the militia, due to its inability to directly confront the armed forces, has resorted exclusively to targeting civilians and civilian institutions to cause the greatest possible loss of life in order to force citizens to evacuate their villages and residential areas for its mercenaries to settle in.
In pursuit of this, the militia uses deadly weapons and drones provided to it by its regional sponsors and employs all means of terrorizing and humiliating citizens.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the successive condemnations “of the terrorist militia recently issued by UN officials, human rights organizations, governments, and legislative bodies in several countries around the world, especially describing its crimes in their true terms as genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity.”
It was stated, “The armed forces and the joint forces, backed by all segments of the Sudanese people, in their heroic confrontation with the militia, not only defend Sudan and its people but also play a key role in protecting regional and international security.
It is incumbent upon the international community to recognize and support this role, and baseless accusations sometimes issued by international parties against the armed forces, or equating them with the rebel militia, must cease.”
