Displaced families from El-Fasher at a displacement camp in Tawila, Darfur region, Sudan. AP
United Nations officials have said RSF fighters have rampaged through the Darfur city of El-Fasher, reportedly killing more than 450 people at a hospital and carrying out ethnically targeted killings and sexual assaults.
Satellite images and videos circulating on social media, along with testimonies from those who escaped El-Fasher, appear to show mass killings in the city. Footage of the attacks triggered a wave of outrage around the world.
France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the European Union all condemned the atrocities.
At the Manama Dialogue security summit in Bahrain, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper spoke grimly about the events in El-Fasher, where the RSF has seized control.
“Just as a combination of leadership and international cooperation has made progress in Gaza, it is currently badly failing to deal with the humanitarian crisis and the devastating conflict in Sudan, because the reports from Darfur in recent days have truly horrifying atrocities,” Cooper said.
“Mass executions, starvation, and the devastating use of rape as a weapon of war, with women and children bearing the brunt of the largest humanitarian crisis in the 21st century. For too long, this terrible conflict has been neglected, while suffering has simply increased.”
She added that "no amount of aid can resolve a crisis of this magnitude until the guns fall silent.”
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul echoed Cooper’s concerns, directly calling out the RSF for its actions in El-Fasher.
“Sudan is absolutely an apocalyptic situation,” Wadephul said.
Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Sudan has not received “the attention it deserves," calling the situation a "humanitarian crisis of inhumane proportions."
"We’ve got to stop that,” he added.
The UN Security Council on Thursday expressed “grave concern” over the escalating violence in El-Fasher, emphasizing that “genuine national reconciliation is the way to end the crisis in Sudan,” rejecting “any parallel structures of power,” and calling on member states to engage constructively with the conflict.
It also stressed the importance of “coordination with the Sudanese government regarding humanitarian aid” and warned that continued violence in Sudan could spill over into neighboring countries.
*This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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