By Anjali Sharma
UNITED NATIONS – UN humanitarians on Monday expressed alarm over rising numbers of civilian casualties in and around the Sudanese city of El Fasher, in northern Darfur.
According to news reports citied local sources, paramilitaries from the so-called Rapid Support Forces who have been battling the forces of the military Government for 18 months, launched a missile attack at the weekend which killed more than 30 people in the city, while a drone attack on Friday reportedly killed nine and wounded 20 at the Saudi Hospital in El Fasher.
UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, briefed reporters in New York said that attacks include the repeated shelling of the Zamzam displacement camp since the beginning of this month.
“The camp hosts hundreds of thousands of people and famine conditions were confirmed there earlier this year.”
Mr. Dujarric condemned all civilian killings “wherever they occur” in response to the deaths in the city in recent days.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said of the attack on the main hospital that it was no longer operational, describing all attacks on healthcare as “deplorable”, in a post on X. The hospital is no longer operational.
Mr. Dujarric added that “This is part of a broader escalation of attacks across Darfur and in other areas of Sudan,”
He reiterated the call from UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, for an immediate ceasefire
“We reiterate that international humanitarian law must be respected. Civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, are not targets,” he added.
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