More than 130 people have died at a single hospital in Sudan’s besieged town of El Fasher, in the Darfur region, according to medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
Fighting between rival groups in Sudan’s civil war, in the battle for control of the city, has intensified recently.
The situation was “terrible”, one resident told the BBC, with hospitals and markets suffering “violent artillery bombardment”.
El Fasher is the last major urban center in Darfur that remains in the hands of the Sudanese army.
The army has been fighting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for more than a year, in a civil war that has killed thousands of people and forced millions to flee their homes.
The army remains in control of El Fasher. The city has become a refuge for people displaced by fighting in other areas.
On May 10, the RSF intensified its attack on the city, in what UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called “an alarming new chapter” in Sudan’s conflict.
MSF said one of its hospitals was struggling to cope with the surge in casualties.
South Hospital treated 979 victims in just over two weeks, the charity said on Sunday. 134 died, “a sign of the violent intensity of the fighting”, he added.
Hospital supplies are running low and will only last a week, the UN said.
On Friday, MSF said that across the city, more than 700 people had died in the last 10 days.
The medical director of the Saudi government hospital in El Fasher told the BBC the situation was “dire”.
“From early in the morning, the RSF began violent artillery shelling of the city, targeting residential areas, markets and hospitals,” said Modther Ibrahim Suliman.
The hospitals in Saudi Arabia and the South are the last in operation in the region. The Saudi Hospital was previously closed by violence, but has partially reopened to treat emergency cases.
El Fasher residents say access to food and water has become increasingly difficult. The RSF has attacked the city from three sides and blocked all supply routes.
Despite the difficulties, many city residents do not leave their homes because of the fighting, even for emergency medical care.
Journalist Mohamed Zakaria said he had no plans to flee. “There is nowhere to go… the path is very difficult and dangerous at the moment.”
Earlier this week, a UN expert warned that civilians in El Fasher were being targeted because of their ethnicity.
Special Advisor Alice Wairimu Nderitu added that the Darfur region as a whole faced an increasing risk of genocide while the world’s attention continued to focus on the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
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