Top United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Sudan, Jacqueline Wilma Parlevliet, said there had been “a significant exodus from El Fasher to Tawila” – about 60 kilometers west of the town – which already hosts around 650,000 displaced people.
The new arrivals told stories of widespread ethnically and politically motivated killings, including reports that disabled people were executed because they were unable to flee, and others were shot dead while trying to escape, Ms. Parlevliet said.
Humanitarian agencies on the ground in Tawila, including UNHCR, are responding as best they can, providing protection services, counseling and cash assistance to affected communities.
Call for humanitarian corridors
However, the UNHCR official warned that the destruction of infrastructure across Darfur – markets, hospitals, schools and homes – has left civilians with few resources.
Additionally, there are reports of “mass massacres” in the town of Barah, located in the central Kordofan region, where the RSF recently took control and carried out similar acts of violence, UNHCR reported.
“We need peace, we need a ceasefire, we need humanitarian corridors,” said Ms. Parlevliet, stressing that many civilians remaining in El Fasher still cannot flee, many of them being “too weak” and the current situation being “too dangerous” for them to move.
IOM demands protection of civilians
The United Nations migration agency, IOMurged all parties to the Sudanese conflict to protect civilians in El Fasher and allow “immediate, safe and unhindered” humanitarian access.
“In just two days, more than 26,000 people have been forced to flee the city,” said IOM chief Amy Pope, warning that “The scenes emerging from El Fasher are horrific. Families walk for days “under the blazing sun… without food, without shelter, without medicine.»
IOM said it was shipping tents and emergency shelter kits to Tawila, but warned that “needs are growing faster than aid can reach people.” The pope urged the world to “act now to end the suffering.”
“Trapped, hungry, terrified”
For 18 months, El Fasher has become “the epicenter of suffering”with hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped under an increasingly tight siege by the RSF, the UN said. Secretary-General António Guterres in a statement released Thursday following the announcement of the withdrawal of government forces from the city.
Reports citing satellite images suggest that mass atrocities have already been carried out, showing bodies piled up following large-scale executions and house-to-house cleansing in El Fasher by RSF fighters.
The UN chief said civilians were “trapped, starving and terrified”, while reiterating his call for an immediate ceasefire between rival military forces. Civil war broke out in April 2023.
Mr. Guterres strongly condemned reports of rights violations and abuses, “including indiscriminate attacks and targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure, as well as gender-based violence, ethnically motivated attacks and ill-treatment.”
He reiterated his call for an immediate end to the fighting and urged government military forces and RSF leaders to engage with his Personal Envoy towards a negotiated settlement.
Originally published at Almouwatin.com
