More than 700 killed in siege of Sudan’s el-Fasher, UN says 

More than 700 people have been killed in el-Fasher in Sudan’s North Darfur state since May, the United Nations human rights chief has said, imploring the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to halt a siege of the city.

The siege and “the relentless fighting are devastating lives every day on a massive scale”, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement on Friday.

“This alarming situation cannot continue. The Rapid Support Forces must end this horrible siege.”

The UN rights office said it had documented the deaths of at least 782 civilians and more than 1,143 injured since May, citing evidence based partly on interviews of those who had fled the area. It said the casualties came amid regular and intensive shelling by the RSF of densely populated residential areas as well as recurrent air attacks by the Sudanese Armed Forces.

Such attacks on civilians may amount to war crimes, the UN human rights office said. Both sides have repeatedly denied deliberately attacking civilians and have accused each other of doing so in el-Fasher and its surroundings.

The Sudanese army under General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, have been locked in conflict for more than 18 months. The war has triggered a profound humanitarian crisis in which more than 12 million people have been driven from their homes and UN agencies have struggled to deliver relief.

El-Fasher is one of the most active front lines between the RSF and the Sudanese army and its allies, which are fighting to maintain a last foothold in the Darfur region. Observers fear that an RSF victory there could bring ethnic retribution, as happened in West Darfur last year.

The city has faced intense attacks over the past week.

Last Friday, paramilitary shelling on the city’s main hospital killed nine people and wounded 20, the head of the World Health Organization said.

On Wednesday, more RSF attacks on the hospital and other parts of the city left 10 civilians dead and 20 wounded, according to pro-democracy activists.

A paramilitary drone attack also killed at least 38 people in the city centre on Sunday.

Nearby Zamzam Camp, where experts say a famine is occurring among a population of more than half a million people, has also come under RSF artillery fire over the last two weeks, forcing thousands to leave the camp.

Turk warned that any large-scale attack on Zamzam or el-Fasher would “catapult civilian suffering to catastrophic levels”.

“All efforts must be taken, including by the international community, to prevent such an attack and to halt the siege,” he added.

Fighting has also continued to rage in other parts of the country. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday condemned the killing of three World Food Programme (WFP) staff members in an attack a day earlier.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for Guterres, said the agency’s field office in Yabus, in Blue Nile State, was hit by aerial bombardment.

“The Secretary-General condemns all attacks on UN and aid personnel and facilities. He calls for a thorough investigation,” Dujarric said in a statement.

The comments came shortly after WFP announced the killings in a statement on X, expressing “outrage”.

The incident, Dujarric said, “underscores the devastating toll that Sudan’s brutal conflict is having on millions of people in need and the humanitarians trying to reach them with life-saving assistance”.

He said 2024 is the “deadliest year on record” for aid workers in Sudan, and reiterated calls for an immediate ceasefire.