At least 24 people have been killed and dozens of others were wounded in a paramilitary attack on the besieged city of el-Fasher in Sudan’s western Darfur region, according to a medical group.
The Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group fighting against Sudan’s military, shelled the densely populated areas of the central market and Awlad al-Reef neighbourhood in el-Fasher, the Sudan Doctors Network, which tracks the country’s civil war, said on Thursday.
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The attack wounded 55 people, including five women, it said.
There was no immediate comment from the RSF on the report.
El-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur province, has been at the epicentre of fighting for more than a year between the Sudanese military and the RSF. It is the military’s last stronghold in the Darfur region.
Sudan plunged into a civil war in April 2023 when long-running tensions between the military and the RSF erupted into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the African country.
Wednesday’s shelling was the latest in a series of attacks on el-Fasher and its surroundings, including two famine-hit camps for displaced people where RSF fighters carried out a major offensive in April that killed hundreds of people.
In August, at least 89 civilians were killed in RSF attacks in and around the city in a span of 10 days, including 16 who were summarily executed, according to the United Nations high commissioner for human rights.
The RSF besieged and turned it into “an epicentre of child suffering, with malnutrition, disease, and violence claiming young lives daily,” according to the UN’s children ‘s agency.
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The siege left 260,000 civilians, including 130,000 children, trapped inside the city and living in “desperate conditions” after being cut off from aid for more than 16 months, UNICEF said in a statement on Wednesday. An estimated 6,000 children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition and are at risk of death, it said.
The conflict has killed more than 40,000 people, forced more than 14 million to flee their homes and left some families eating grass in a desperate attempt to survive as famine sweeps parts of the country.
It has been marked by gross atrocities, including ethnically motivated killings and rape, according to the UN and rights groups.
The International Criminal Court said it was investigating alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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