107,000 Sudanese displaced from El-Fasher since October
The International organisation for Migration (IOM) reported on December 21st that over 107,000 Sudanese have been displaced from the city of El-Fasher ever since it was captured by the rebel paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on October 26th, according to Middle East Monitor.
The paramilitary group imposed a brutal siege on the city of El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, in May 2024 as part of a now successful campaign to dislodge the last remaining military presence in the western Darfur region.
The RSF has been embroiled in a bloody civil war with the Sudanese national military since April 2023 after a power struggle turned bloody.
In a statement, the IOM estimated that 107,294 people, comprised of 24,221 families, were forced to flee from El-Fasher and the surrounding villages between 26th October and 8th December. It attributed this sudden mass displacement to a rapidly deteriorating security situation in the city.
Roughly 72% of those displaced from El-Fasher have remained within the state of North Darfur, predominantly in the northern and western areas. The IOM verified that a further 19% of the displaced have fled to other states in Sudan, including Central Darfur, Northern State, and White Nile.
The IOM’s field teams stated that three-quarters of the people displaced from El-Fasher were already internally displaced due to the civil war.
The International Rescue Committee estimated that Sudan’s conflict has displaced at least 12 million people and has caused “the largest humanitarian crisis ever recorded.
What followed the RSF’s seizure of El-Fasher was “mass killings, systematic sexual violence and deliberate attacks on civilians”, according to the British Foreign Office, which sanctioned several paramilitary commanders for their alleged participation in such crimes.
On one occasion, RSF fighters stormed the last functioning hospital in El-Fasher and massacred 460 patients at once. British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper declared that “the overwhelming evidence of heinous crimes – mass executions, starvation, and the systematic and calculated use of rape as a weapon of war – cannot and will not go unpunished.”
Middle East Monitor, Maghrebi.org, International Rescue Committee
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