Sudanese paramilitary attack kills at least 53 people in Darfur, an aid group says

At least 53 people, including women and children, were killed in a shelling and drone attack by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a shelter for displaced families.

A shelling and drone attack by the Sudanese paramilitary forces hit a shelter in a besieged city in the Darfur region, killing at least 53 people, a doctors’ group said Saturday. The onslaught was the latest in Sudan’s more than two-year war.

The Sudan Doctors’ Network, a group of medical professionals tracking the war, says at least 14 children and 15 women were among the dead in the attack late Friday by the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, on the city of el-Fasher.

The attack also left 21 people wounded, including five children and seven women, the group said. Most of the wounded suffered serious injuries, it said.

The attack targeted al-Arqam Home, a shelter for displaced families in el-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur, the group said. The shelter is located at the Omdurman Islamic University.

“This massacre represents a continuation of the scorched-earth policy practiced by the Rapid Support Forces against civilians, in flagrant violation of all international norms and laws,” the medical group said.

The RSF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mashad Organization, a rights group, described the attack as “one of the most atrocious massacres” since the RSF began its offensive on the city more than a year ago, and said it amounted to an “act of genocide carried out before the yes of a silent world.”

El-Fasher has for months the epicenter of the fighting between the Sudanese military and the paramilitaries. The city is the military’s last stronghold in Darfur.