There are serious fears for the civilians who survived the takeover of el Faster by a Sudanese paramilitary group and the cessation of the ground said that the remaining groups in the camps had reached “sad” levels.
The strong support force (RSF) captured El Faster – the capital of North Darfur State and the last urban center outside the wider Darfur region – on 26 October. Survivor accounts and video and satellite evidence suggest more than 1,500 people were killed in ethnically targeted massacres in the immediate aftermath.
The international organization for migration, a UN agency, said the humanitarian situation in North Darfur has worsened in recent weeks. “Despite the increase in demand, humanitarian operations are currently on the brink of collapse,” the IOM said in a statement. “
Warehouses are nearly empty, aid convoys face significant uncertainty, and access restrictions continue to prevent the delivery of sufficient aid. “
Amy Papa, the director of the Iom Director, said: “Our teams are responding, but the uncertainty means that the tools to access the moments that those who like the communities need to support the most.”
The IOM says nearly 90,000 people have left El Faster and surrounding villages in recent weeks, making a perilous journey along unsafe routes where they have no access to food, water or medical aid.
Tens of thousands have arrived in overcrowded displacement camps in Tawila, about 70km (43 miles) from El Faster. In the camps, the displaced found themselves in barren places with few tents and insufficient food and medical supplies.
Aid doctors without Borders have warned that malnutrition in displacement camps has reached “shocking” rates. More than 70% of children under the age of five who arrived in Tawila between the fall of El Faster at the end of October and 3 November are severely malnourished, the group said. “The true scale of the crisis is likely to be worse than reported,” it added.
The World Health Organization warned this week that thousands of people remain trapped in the city without access to food, clean water or medical care.
A Witness to the fall of El Fasther told Reuters by telephone that RSF Trucks sprayed civilians with vehicles. “Young people, old people, children, they invite them,” said the man, who did not want to give his name. Another said he saw militiamen raiding residential areas and killing as many as 50 to 60 people in one street.
The RSF has been at war with the Sudanese army since April 2023, when tensions flared between the two former allies aimed at a democratic transition after the 2019 uprising.
The RSF’s headquarters, the United Arab Emirates, has faced criticism for allegedly supplying the weapons and mercenaries used to take on El Faster. The UAE has denied the claims despite evidence presented in UN reports and elsewhere.
The full scale of the atrocities that took place in El Faster has yet to emerge, but satellite imagery has captured the streets of people wearing clothes being shot dead. The flight of medical workers accounts for murders, arrests, rapes and thefts.
“There is evidence that rape is deliberately and systematically used as a weapon of war,” said Anna Mayovati, the Dire Regular Director of First and Southern Africa. “Women’s bodies become a crime scene in Sudan.”
As in previous mass killings carried out by the RSF, El Forer’s fighters appeared to target attractive non-Arab skins.
“These attacks have made it possible to stop the cost of stopping the international community,” the UN Commissioner for human rights, Voler Türk, said on Monday night.
The International Criminal Court has launched an investigation to determine the extent of abuses and potential war crimes in El Faster, examining testimonies, and witness reports.
Associated Press, Edence France-Peresse and Reuters contributed to this report