Over 100 feared dead in Sudan paramilitary attacks in Darfur: UN

PORT SUDAN:More than 100 people, including 20 children, are feared dead in Sudan following paramilitary attacks on the besieged Darfur city of El-Fasher and two nearby famine-hit camps, the United Nations said on Saturday.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, at war with the regular army since April 2023, launched “coordinated ground and aerial assaults” on Friday on El-Fasher and the Zamzam and Abou Shouk displacement camps, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

In recent weeks, the paramilitaries have stepped up their attacks on El-Fasher -- the only state capital in Darfur still outside their control -- following the army’s recapture of the national capital Khartoum last month.

Early reports from a volunteer aid group put Friday’s death toll at 57, with 32 civilians killed in El-Fasher and 25 in Zamzam. The army said Saturday that 74 civilians were killed and 17 wounded in the El-Fasher attack.There was no immediate comment from the RSF.

The Sudanese Organisation for the Protection of Civilians said the dead included nine humanitarian workers operating a hospital in Zamzam, run by an international non-governmental organisation. UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan Clementine Nkweta-Salami condemned their deaths. “The colleagues from an international non-governmental organisation were killed while operating one of the very few remaining health posts still operational in the camp,” she said in a statement. “This represents yet another deadly and unacceptable escalation in a series of brutal attacks on displaced people and aid workers in Sudan since the onset of this conflict nearly two years ago. “I strongly urge those committing such acts to immediately desist.”

The attack on Zamzam resumed on Saturday morning, with clashes and heavy gunfire heard for hours, the Darfur General Coordination of Camps for the Displaced and Refugees said. The camp was the first part of Sudan where a UN-backed assessment declared famine last year. By December, famine had also spread to two nearby camps -- Abu Shouk and Al Salam -- and is expected to hit El-Fasher itself by May.