GENEVA – The United Nations has spoken out against an attack by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a camp for people who have had to leave their homes in the western area of Darfur. According to an activist group, the attack on Monday killed at least 40 people and hurt 19 others at the Abu Shouk camp outside of el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.
Sheldon Yett, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, said in a statement that the violence was wrong and that “once again, civilians are paying the highest price in this conflict.” Not targeting displacement camps and other sites where civilians can find safety is wrong.
Siege and humanitarian crisis get worse
The RSF has assaulted the Abu Shouk camp and the adjoining Zamzam camp many times. These camps are home to people who have had to leave their homes. For more than a year, the RSF has been trying to take el-Fasher, the last military stronghold in Darfur. Yett says that the siege is still going on and that the people of the city have “extremely limited access to food, safe water, and medical care.” He also said that more than 60 people died of hunger in just one week, which is “extremely worrying.”
For more than a year, the World Food Program (WFP) has not been able to send help to el-Fasher by land. This month, the UN agency said that 300,000 people who are “trapped, hungry, and running out of time” are at risk of starving. Eric Perdison, the WFP’s regional director, said that people’s coping mechanisms have run out after more than two years of war and that “without immediate and sustained access, lives will be lost.”
The attack is the most recent tragedy in Sudan’s civil war, which started in April 2023. The military is fighting the RSF, which is a power war between two leaders. The conflict has forced about 14 million people to leave their homes. Some areas are now under hunger, and there have been many terrible things, such mass killings and rape. The International Criminal Court is looking at possible crimes against humanity in the fighting right now.