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UN chief Antonio Guterres warns of \u2018terrible escalation\u2019 of conflict as officials sound alarm over reports of civilian killings.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The United Nations has made an urgent call for the protection and safe passage of hundreds of thousands of civilians in Sudan\u2019s el-Fasher as fighters from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group have claimed to have seized control of the besieged city.<\/p>\n UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher on Monday sounded the alarm amid reports of civilian casualties and forced displacement in\u00a0the capital city of North Darfur state.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n The RSF has been laying\u00a0siege to el-Fasher for nearly 18 months in a bid to take control of the Sudanese army\u2019s last stronghold in the vast western region of Darfur. The fighting has trapped at least 250,000 civilians and forced hundreds of thousands of others to flee their homes.<\/p>\n \u201cWith fighters pushing further into the city and escape routes cut off, hundreds of thousands of civilians are trapped and terrified \u2013 shelled, starving, and without access to healthcare, food, or safety,\u201d Fletcher said in a statement, describing el-Fasher as being \u201cat breaking point\u201d.<\/p>\n He also called for unimpeded humanitarian access and safe passage for all civilians escaping the fighting. \u201cCeasefire now, in El Fasher, in Darfur and throughout Sudan,\u201d Fletcher wrote on social media.<\/p>\n Later on Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of a \u201cterrible escalation\u201d, saying the humanitarian situation in Sudan, where a civil war has been raging since April 2023, had become \u201cunbearable\u201d.<\/p>\n Speaking to reporters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Guterres also urged all countries that are interfering in the conflict and those \u201cproviding weapons to the parties to the war\u201d to stop undermining efforts to reach a ceasefire.<\/p>\n Observers said the seizing of el-Fasher could be a potential turning point in Sudan\u2019s civil war, which has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 12 million and left 30 million in need of aid, making it the world\u2019s largest humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n Reporting from Sudan\u2019s capital, Khartoum, Al Jazeera\u2019s Hiba Morgan said el-Fasher\u2019s takeover would solidify the RSF\u2019s grip on the entirety of Darfur.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat this means is that the RSF has more autonomy in the western region,\u201d Morgan explained, adding that the fighters could even move for a \u201cseparation\u201d of Darfur from the rest of Sudan.<\/p>\n Despite RSF assurances of civilian protection, the paramilitary group has faced accusations of committing atrocities in el-Fasher.<\/p>\n According to the Sudan Doctors Network, the advancing RSF fighters carried out killings of unarmed civilians on \u201cethnic grounds\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cReports from our field teams indicate that the number of victims exceeds dozens, though it remains difficult to access the affected areas due to the complete security collapse caused by the RSF,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n It was not possible to independently verify the statement.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Minni Minnawi, the governor of Darfur, who is allied with Sudan\u2019s army, has demanded that civilians be protected from the advancing RSF.<\/p>\n The AFP news agency also quoted Minnawi as calling for an \u201cindependent investigation into the violations and massacres\u201d allegedly carried out by the RSF.<\/p>\n Sudan\u2019s official news agency SUNA quoted Information Minister Khaled al-Aisir as refuting the RSF\u2019s claim of an advance in el-Fasher, describing it as \u201cpsychological warfare\u201d and saying the \u201crebellion \u2026 has collapsed and been defeated in several locations\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n UN chief Antonio Guterres warns of \u2018terrible escalation\u2019 of conflict as officials sound alarm over reports of civilian killings. The United Nations has made an urgent call for the protection and safe passage of hundreds of thousands of civilians in Sudan\u2019s el-Fasher as fighters from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group have claimed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
RSF solidifying grip on Darfur<\/h2>\n
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