\n<\/p>\n
Sudan\u2019s army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has announced the withdrawal of his soldiers from their last stronghold in Darfur, as the United Nations issued a stark warning over reports of \u201catrocities\u201d by the paramilitary group now in control of the city of el-Fasher.<\/p>\n
Al-Burhan\u2019s announcement came late on Monday, a day after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized control of the main Sudanese army base in el-Fasher and claimed victory there.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n The army\u2019s withdrawal from el-Fasher leaves more than a quarter-million people \u2013 half of them children \u2013 under the control of the RSF. Aid groups reported chaotic scenes there, including killings, arrests, attacks on hospitals and battles between RSF and the departing troops.<\/p>\n In his statement, al-Burhan said that military officers decided to withdraw from the city entirely in the hopes of sparing the civilian population from further violence.<\/p>\n The army retreated because of \u201cthe systemic destruction, and the systemic killing of civilians\u201d by the RSF, he said, adding that the army hoped to \u201cspare the citizens and the rest of the city from destruction\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are determined to avenge what happened to our people in el-Fasher,\u201d he said. \u201cWe, as the Sudanese people, will hold these criminals accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n The fall of el-Fasher to the RSF could herald another split of Sudan, more than a decade after South Sudan\u2019s creation.<\/p>\n The latest war started in April 2023, when tension between the military and RSF exploded into fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere, killing tens of thousands and displacing nearly 12 million people.<\/p>\n Footage posted on social media since Sunday showed RSF fighters celebrating in and around the former army base in el-Fasher. Other footage shows RSF fighters shooting and beating people as they attempt to flee. Many were shown detained.<\/p>\n UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the developments represent a \u201cterrible escalation in the conflict\u201d and that \u201cthe level of suffering that we are witnessing in Sudan is unbearable\u201d.<\/p>\n The UN Human Rights Office, meanwhile, said that RSF fighters reportedly carried out atrocities in el-Fasher, including \u201csummary executions\u201d of civilians trying to flee their attacks, \u201cwith indications of ethnic motivations for killings\u201d.<\/p>\n Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said the \u201crisk of further large-scale, ethnically motivated violations and atrocities in el-Fasher is mounting by the day\u201d.<\/p>\n The Sudan Doctor Network, a medical group tracking the war, described the RSF attack as a \u201cheinous massacre\u201d and said that dozens of people were killed. RSF fighters rampaged through parts of el-Fasher, looting hospitals and other medical facilities and \u201cdestroying what remained of essential life-supporting and health care infrastructure\u201d, the network said in a statement.<\/p>\n The Darfur Network for Human Rights said the RSF detained more than 1,000 civilians, describing it as \u201csystematic targeting of civilians, arbitrary detentions and potential acts amounting to war crimes\u201d.<\/p>\n Among the detained was a local journalist, one of the few left in the city, according to the Sudanese Journalists\u2019 Union. The group warned about potential \u201cmass violations\u201d in el-Fasher, similar to what happened in another Darfur city, Geneina, in 2023, when RSF fighters killed hundreds.<\/p>\n The Sudan Doctors Union, the professional umbrella of Sudanese physicians, said that the RSF had turned el-Fasher into a \u201cbrutal killing field,\u201d calling its practices in Sudan a \u201cbarbaric policy that aims at terrorizing and annihilating civilians\u201d. The group urged the international community to classify the RSF as a terrorist organisation.<\/p>\n UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher also expressed \u201cdeep alarm\u201d at the reports of civilian casualties and forced displacement in el-Fasher.<\/p>\n \u201cHundreds of thousands of civilians are trapped and terrified \u2013 shelled, starving and without access to food, health care or safety,\u201d he said in a statement. He called for \u201csafe, rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access\u201d to the population that remained.<\/p>\n Before Sunday\u2019s attack, there were 260,000 civilians, half of them children, trapped in el-Fasher, according to the UN children\u2019s agency.<\/p>\n The UN\u2019s International Organization for Migration said that more than 26,000 people had fled their homes as of Monday, retreating to rural areas and the overwhelmed nearby town of Tawila.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, RSF fighters ran riot in the town of Bara in the central Kordofan region over the weekend, killing at least 47 people, including nine women, the Sudan Doctors Network said.<\/p>\n The RSF grew out of the notorious government-linked militia known as the Janjaweed, which brutalised the Sudanese during the Darfur conflict in the 2000s.<\/p>\n The latest war has killed more than 40,000 people and created the world\u2019s worst humanitarian crisis, with part of the country, including the el-Fasher area, plunged into famine.<\/p>\n The conflict has been marked by gross atrocities, including ethnically motivated killings and rape, according to the UN and rights groups.<\/p>\n The International Criminal Court has said it is investigating alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Sudan\u2019s army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has announced the withdrawal of his soldiers from their last stronghold in Darfur, as the United Nations issued a stark warning over reports of \u201catrocities\u201d by the paramilitary group now in control of the city of el-Fasher. Al-Burhan\u2019s announcement came late on Monday, a day after the paramilitary Rapid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-291","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\/291","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=291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
Atrocities in el-Fasher<\/h2>\n
Alleged war crimes<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"