UN warns that Sudanese paramilitary forces are surrounding a capital in West Darfur and urges against attacks

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Sudanese paramilitary forces are besieging the only capital they have not captured in the western region of Darfur, the United Nations said Friday, warning that an attack would have “devastating consequences” for the city’s 800,000 residents.

At the same time, the UN said, rival Sudanese armed forces “appear to be deploying”.

UN Secretary-General, António Guterres appealed again to paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and government forces to refrain from fighting in the North Darfur area around its capital, El Fasher, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Sudan’s year-long war between rival generals from paramilitary and government forces vying for power has sparked “a crisis of epic proportions”, UN political chief Rosemary DiCarlo said last Friday. It has been fueled by weapons from foreign supporters who continue to flout UN sanctions designed to help end the conflict, she said, stressing that “this is illegal, it is immoral and it must stop.”

The UN humanitarian office said on Friday that the escalation of tensions and clashes around El Fasher over the past two weeks has already resulted in the displacement of 40,000 people, as well as a number of civilian casualties.

“The security situation has effectively cut off humanitarian access to El Fasher,” said the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs known as OCHA.

According to humanitarian officials, El Fasher is an important location for reaching other parts of the vast Darfur region, including for aid shipments from neighboring Chad and via a northern route from Port Sudan on Sudan’s northeast coast. .

“Currently, more than a dozen trucks carrying vital supplies for 122,000 people are stranded in Ad Dabbah, in the neighboring northern state, as they cannot proceed to El Fasher due to insecurity and the lack of guarantees of safe passage,” said the THE TEA.

Dujarric said the secretary-general’s personal envoy for Sudan, Ramtane Lamamra, is working with rival parties to de-escalate tensions, which have reportedly risen dramatically.

OCHA also said it is “imperative that parties allow safe passage for civilians to leave El Fasher for safer areas.”

Sudan descended into chaos in mid-April 2023 when long-running tensions between its military, led by General Abdel Fattah Burhanand the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo broke out into street battles in the capital, Khartoum. The fighting spread to other parts of the country, especially urban areas and the western region of Darfur.

The UN’s DiCarlo painted a dire picture of the war’s impact: more than 14,000 dead, tens of thousands injured, famine imminent, with 25 million people in need of life-saving assistance and more than 8.6 million forced to flee their homes. houses.

During the war, Arab-dominated Rapid Support Forces carried out brutal attacks in Darfur against ethnic African civilians, especially the Masalit ethnic groupand took control of most of the vast region – with El Fasher being their newest target.

Two decades ago, Darfur became synonymous with genocide and war crimes, particularly committed by the notorious Janjaweed Arab militias, against populations that identify as Central or East African.

That legacy appears to have returned, with International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan saying at the end of January that there is reason to believe both sides may be committing war crimescrimes 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 toppled during a popular uprising in 2019. He is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide and other crimes during the conflict in Darfur in the 2000s.