CAIRO: At least 123 people have been killed in more than two weeks of fighting between Sudan’s military and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in a major city in the western Darfur region, said an international aid group on Sunday.
The fighting in El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur province, also wounded more than 930 people at the same time, said charity organization, Doctors Without Borders.
“This is a sign of the violent intensity of the fighting,” the group said. “We urge the warring parties to do more to protect civilians,” it said.
According to the United Nations (UN), fighting between the military and the RSF escalated earlier this month in the city, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes.
El-Fasher has become the center of the conflict between the military and the RSF, supported by militias known commonly as Janjaweed.
The city is the last stronghold of the military in the troubled Darfur region.
Sudan’s conflict started in April last year when tensions between the leaders of the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in Khartoum and other parts of the country.
The conflict in Sudan has killed more than 14,000 people and injured thousands more amid reports of widespread sexual violence and other brutalities that rights groups say amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Sudan on the verge of famine
It also pushed the African country’s population on the verge of famine.
The UN food agency earlier this month had warned the warring parties that there is a serious risk of widespread starvation and death in Darfur and Sudan elsewhere if they don’t allow humanitarian assistance into the vast western region.
The RSF, in recent months, has built up forces seeking to take control of El-Fasher.
The RSF, along with its militia allies, besieged the city and started a major attack on its southern and eastern parts earlier this month.
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The UN’s International Organization for Migration reported that clashes have recently renewed in the Abu Shouk camp for displaced people in the Salam area of the city.
On Saturday, a shell targeted the house of a Doctors Without Borders aid worker into the city’s main market, killing the worker.
According to the Coordinating Committee for Refugees and Displaced People, which oversees camps in the region, around 60 percent of the more than 100,000 residents of the El-Fasher fled the city on Thursday.
According to medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) at least 85 people have been killed at the only functioning hospital in the south of Al-Fashir since May 10.
