UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Sudanese paramilitary forces are encircling the only capital in the western Darfur region that they have not captured, the United Nations said Friday, warning that an attack would have “devastating consequences” for the city’s 800,000 residents would have.
At the same time, the UN said, “rival Sudanese forces appear to be positioning themselves.”
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres again called on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and government troops to refrain from fighting in the North Darfur region around the capital El Fasher, U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said.
Sudan’s years-long war between rival paramilitary generals and government forces vying for power has sparked “a crisis of epic proportions,” UN policy chief Rosemary DiCarlo said last Friday. It was fueled by weapons from foreign backers who continue to flout U.N. sanctions meant to help end the conflict, she said, stressing: “This is illegal, it is immoral and it must stop.”
The UN humanitarian office said on Friday that escalating tensions and clashes around El Fasher in the past two weeks had already led to the displacement of 40,000 people and numerous civilian casualties.
“The security situation has effectively cut off humanitarian access to El Fasher,” the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, known as OCHA, said.
Humanitarian officials say El Fasher is a key location for reaching other parts of the vast Darfur region, including for aid deliveries from neighboring Chad and via a northern route from Port Sudan on Sudan’s northeast coast.
“Currently, more than a dozen trucks carrying life-saving supplies for 122,000 people are stranded in Ad Dabbah in the neighboring northern state, unable to continue to El Fasher due to insecurity and lack of guarantees of safe passage,” OCHA said.
Dujarric said the secretary-general’s personal envoy to Sudan, Ramtane Lamamra, was working with the rival parties to defuse tensions, which have reportedly escalated dramatically.
OCHA also said it was “essential that the parties provide safe passage for civilians to leave El-Fashir for safer areas.”
Sudan plunged into chaos in mid-April 2023 when long-simmering tensions between its military, led by General Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitaries commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo erupted in street battles in the capital, Khartoum. Fighting has spread to other parts of the country, particularly urban areas and the western Darfur region.
The United Nations’ DiCarlo painted a grim picture of the war’s impact – over 14,000 dead, tens of thousands wounded, looming starvation, 25 million people in need of life-saving assistance and over 8.6 million people forced to flee their homes.
During the war, the Arab-dominated Rapid Support Forces in Darfur carried out brutal attacks on ethnic African civilians, particularly the ethnic Masalit, and seized control of most of the vast region – with El Fasher as its latest target.
Two decades ago, Darfur became synonymous with genocide and war crimes, particularly by the notorious Arab Janjaweed militias, against populations who identify as Central or East African.
That legacy appears to have returned, with International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan saying in late January that there was reason to believe both sides could be committing war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide in Darfur.
The Rapid Support Forces were formed from Janjaweed fighters by former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who ruled the country for three decades before being ousted during a popular uprising in 2019. He is wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide and other crimes during the conflict in Darfur in the 2000s.