RSF shelling kills 14 in Sudan displacement camp

PortSudan: Shelling bySudan s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces group (RSF) killed at least 14 people Sunday in a famine hit displacement camp in the...

Port Sudan: Shelling by Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces group (RSF) killed at least 14 people Sunday in a famine-hit displacement camp in the war-torn country's western Darfur region, volunteer rescuers said. The artillery attack targeted the Abu Shouk camp, according to the local Emergency Response Room, one of hundreds across the country delivering frontline aid since the war between the army and RSF began in April 2023. It said "the market and other parts inside the camp including mosques and homes close to public facilities" were hit, adding that safety concerns prevented first responders from tallying all casualties. Abu Shouk shelters tens of thousands of people displaced by violence both from previous conflicts in Darfur and the current war. Since losing control of the capital Khartoum in March, the RSF has intensified its attacks on El-Fasher -- the last state capital in Darfur still under army control -- and its nearby displacement camps of Zamzam and Abu Shouk. Last month, the RSF seized Zamzam after a bloody offensive that forced 400,000 people to flee the camp, once home to up to a million displaced people. The conflict, now in its third year, has carved up the northeast African country, with the army holding the centre, east and north while the RSF dominates nearly all of Darfur and, with its allies, parts of the south. Both the army and RSF have launched attacks across the country in recent days, trying to claim territory and cut off rival supply lines. The Emergency Lawyers, a monitoring group which has documented atrocities on both sides, on Sunday accused the army of killing 18 civilians, including four children, in an attack on Al-Hamadi village in South Kordofan state last week.

Blackout in Khartoum

They said the attack by the army and allied militias was accompanied by "widespread looting of citizens' homes and the market, arbitrary detention of activists, and dozens being forced to flee on foot to neighbouring towns and villages". Both sides have been accused of war crimes including targeting civilians, torture and looting or obstructing aid. In the capital Khartoum, a days-long electricity blackout caused by drone strikes on power stations has disrupted healthcare at the city's major hospitals, medical charity Doctors without Borders (MSF) said on Sunday. On Wednesday, drone strikes blamed on the RSF targeted three power stations in Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman, causing a major blackout across the state, according to the Khartoum governor's media office. The RSF has in recent weeks launched a campaign of drone strikes on key infrastructure in the army-controlled northeast, including its seat of government in Port Sudan. "The blackout has affected almost all of Omdurman, including the MSF-supported Ministry of Health hospitals, Al Nao and Al Buluk," MSF said in a statement. Both hospitals now "lack electricity, oxygen and water", the charity said, adding that "healthcare at every level is being disrupted". MSF also said the local water network "is not working", risking the spread of cholera in the city as residents "will turn to different water sources". Sudan's already fragile healthcare system has been pushed to "breaking point" by the war, according to the World Health Organization.

Up to 90 percent of the country's hospitals have at some point been forced to close because of the fighting, according to the doctors' union, with health facilities stormed, bombed and looted.