UN Denounces Increasing Violence : Human Rights Chief Volker Turk has voiced grave alarm about the worsening situation in El Fasher, Darfur, where people are being severely injured in the escalating hostilities between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Since the escalation began last week, the battle in El Fasher has killed at least 58 civilians and injured 213 more, according to Ravina Shamdasani, spokesman for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The human tragedy is emphasized by these figures, who are probably low.
Turk has called significant figures on both sides of the issue, imploring them to put aside their differences and work together. He has demanded swift and decisive measures to end the fighting and safeguard innocent people. Continuing hostilities in El Fasher, which is home to more than 1.8 million people (including displaced people), might worsen intercommunal tensions and have terrible humanitarian consequences, he stressed.
El Fasher has been experiencing an increasing scenario, according to Clementine Nkweta-Salami, Sudan’s top UN humanitarian official. Clashes over the weekend and earlier this week resulted in multiple casualties and forced many of the 800,000 people still residing in the city to flee even deeper. There is no end in sight to the horrible bloodshed, famine, sickness, and continuous strife that she characterized as besetting the Sudanese people.
The UN food agency has warned warring factions in Sudan that preventing humanitarian supplies from reaching those in need poses a significant risk of widespread famine and death in Darfur and other regions. The war, which broke out in mid-April 2023 as a result of long-simmering animosities between Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan’s military and Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo’s paramilitary RSF, has now extended beyond Khartoum, touching both metropolitan centers and the expansive Darfur region.
According to the United Nations, more than 14,000 people have died, and 33,000 have been injured as a result of the continuing violence. The RSF has taken over most of Darfur and is now encircling El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur—the only regional city they have not yet conquered.
The United Nations’ plea for $2.7 billion to help about 15 million of Sudan’s 58 million people is severely underfunded at only 12%, even though donors pledged $2.1 billion in humanitarian aid for the country on April 15. A halt to the fighting and the prompt delivery of humanitarian supplies have been repeated demands from around the world to save lives and ease the suffering of the people living in Sudan.
