Cairo: Aid workers worried on Thursday that only a trickle of the people believed to have fled a paramilitary force that seized a city in Sudan’s Darfur region have reached safety, as hundreds reportedly have been killed in the attack and while making their escape.
People have been arriving in a town west of el-Fasher, having fled on foot during the attack by the Rapid Support Forces, which has been fighting troops allied to Sudan’s military since 2023 in the East African nation.
Already, the World Health Organisation has warned that the violence has reportedly killed 460 people in a hospital in el-Fasher.
Witnesses have told The Associated Press that RSF fighters also went from house to house, beating and shooting people, including women and children.
Disrupted communications around El-Fasher have made assessing the devastation that much more difficult. Experts have said satellite photos also appear to show bodies in the streets of the city after the RSF attack.
The smaller number of people reaching the town of Tawila, about 60 kilometres (35 miles) west of el-Fasher and not under the paramilitary group’s control, has aid workers fearing the worst.
“The number of people who made it to Tawila is very small, and that should be a concern for all of us,” said Malthide Vu, advocacy manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council, which manages the camp in Tawila for those displaced. “Where are the others? That tells the horror of the journey.”
The International Rescue Committee separately warned, “hundreds of thousands of people are in grave danger in and around el-Fasher.” Those arriving in Tawila travelled by foot at night and told its aid workers there had been arbitrary killings by RSF forces along their escape, which had been littered with bodies.
“The fact that we are seeing so few people arriving safely in Tawila should alarm everyone. It raises urgent warnings about what is happening to those trying to flee El Fasher,” said David Miliband, president of the IRC.
“Safe passage for civilians must be guaranteed, aid must be scaled up and funded now, and all parties must respect their obligation to protect civilians. The world cannot turn away from yet another chapter of horror in Darfur.”
Some 460 patients and their companions were reportedly killed Tuesday at the Saudi Hospital in el-Fasher, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health
Organisation.