At least 75 people have been killed in a drone attack on a mosque in the Sudanese city of El Fasher. The city has been surrounded by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for eighteen months.
Hundreds of thousands of people have fled to El Fasher in recent years, hoping to escape the RSF. But the paramilitaries have surrounded the city, trapping its residents, the Sudanese army, and an estimated 260,000 refugees like rats for eighteen months. Half of the displaced are children.
Previous RSF attacks on the city and its refugee camps have already caused many deaths. In April, Zamzam, a massive refugee camp located 11 kilometers south of El Fasher, was looted by the RSF. Estimates put the deaths at up to 1,500. The UN called it one of the worst massacres of the war.
According to a report by the UN Human Rights Commission, released Friday, at least 3,384 civilians were killed between January and June, primarily in Darfur. At least 990 people were executed, according to investigators.
In addition to the various attacks on refugee camps, human rights organizations say the RSF is also using hunger as a weapon. UN food convoys are bombed and looted by the RSF en route.
The price of basic commodities like millet has risen so sharply in El Fasher that residents are forced to eat ambaz, or animal feed. The porridge is a byproduct of peanut production and is normally only given to cows, sheep, and camels. The animal feed is susceptible to fungal contamination. According to Sudanese aid workers, at least eighteen residents of El Fasher have died in recent weeks after eating ambaz.
📰 Also read this news update about the situation in El Fasher, from de Volkskrant.
📻 Or listen to this conversation with Marcia Luyten about the drone attack and the broader situation in Darfur and Sudan on NPO Radio 1's program NOS Met het Oog op Morgen, starting at minute 11.