More than 700 killed in siege of Sudan’s el-Fasher, UN says
Al Jazeera
UN report finds at least 782 civilians killed since May ‘amid regular and intensive shelling’ of the North Darfur city.
More than 700 people have been killed in el-Fasher in Sudan’s North Darfur state since May, the United Nations human rights chief has said, imploring the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to halt a siege of the city.
The siege and “the relentless fighting are devastating lives every day on a massive scale”, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement on Friday.
“This alarming situation cannot continue. The Rapid Support Forces must end this horrible siege.”
The UN rights office said it had documented the deaths of at least 782 civilians and more than 1,143 injured since May, citing evidence based partly on interviews of those who had fled the area. It said the casualties came amid regular and intensive shelling by the RSF of densely populated residential areas as well as recurrent air attacks by the Sudanese Armed Forces.
