The United Nations announced the killing of at least 27 civilians and the injury of nearly 130 others following clashes between the Sudanese army and “Rapid Support Forces” in the city of El Fasher in the Darfur region of western Sudan.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs confirmed on Sunday, via the “X” platform, that “battles occurred on May 10th between the Sudanese army and Rapid Support Forces in El Fasher, resulting in the killing of approximately 27 people and the injury of 130, with hundreds displaced.”
The UN’s announcement of this toll, which it said is based on “unconfirmed reports,” comes as the city suffers from almost total communication blackout, making it difficult for health, humanitarian, and human rights workers to communicate with the outside world except for rare instances.
Local residents reported on Sunday that aircraft bombed the eastern and northern parts of El Fasher amid mutual artillery shelling between the army and Rapid Support Forces.
A medical source at the only functioning El Fasher South Hospital in the city confirmed that “the morgue is full to its capacity with bodies.”
French organization Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) stated on Saturday that “160 injured, including 31 women and 19 children,” arrived at this hospital, which the UN says “has a capacity of no more than a hundred beds.”
According to the United Nations, the hospital “had no ambulance during the clashes to transport the wounded, had few medicines and medical supplies to treat the wounded, and lacked surgical supplies.”
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Clémentine Nkweta-Salami, earlier said that “heavy weapons shelling occurred in El Fasher, posing a threat to around 800,000 displaced persons residing in the city, which has a total population of one and a half million people.”
Due to the ongoing war between the army and Rapid Support Forces, 1.7 million Sudanese in Darfur are facing “the risk of famine,” according to Sudanese media.
El Fasher is the capital of North Darfur State, the center of the five-state Darfur region, and its largest city. It is the only one among the capitals of the other states of the region that has not fallen into the hands of Rapid Support Forces. The city is considered a major aid center in the region located in western Sudan, where a quarter of the country’s population, totaling 48 million people, resides, and it hosts a large number of refugees.
Calls from UN and international organizations have increased in recent times to “spare Sudan from a humanitarian catastrophe that could push millions into famine and death due to food shortages resulting from fighting that has spread to 12 out of the country’s 18 states.”
Since mid-April 2023, the Sudanese army and Rapid Support Forces have been engaged in a war that has left around 15,000 dead and more than 8 million displaced and refugees, according to the United Nations.
