CAIRO (AP) — At least 53 people, including 14 children and 15 women, were killed in an attack by Sudanese paramilitaries that hit a shelter in a besieged Darfur city, a doctors’ group said Saturday.
The shelling and drone attack late Friday by the Rapid Support Forces on the city of el-Fasher also wounded another 21 people, including five children and seven women, said the Sudan Doctors’ Network, a group of medical professionals tracking the Sudanese civil war. Most of the wounded suffered serious injuries, it said.
The attack — the latest in Sudan’s civil war — hit the al-Arqam Home, a shelter for displaced families in el-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur province, the group said. The shelter is located at the Omdurman Islamic University.
“This massacre represents a continuation of the scorched-earth policy practiced by the Rapid Support Forces against civilians, in flagrant violation of all international norms and laws,” the medical group said.
The RSF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
El-Fasher has for months the epicenter of the war between the Sudanese military and the paramilitaries. The city is the military’s last stronghold in Darfur and has been under siege for over a year.
The paramilitaries, who have regularly bombed the city, imposed a total blockade in July, trapping hundreds of thousands of people.
The U.N. and other aid groups warn that 260,000 civilians remain trapped in the city after most of its population fled RSF attacks on the city and its surroundings. El-Fasher is suffering with hunger and disease outbreaks, including cholera, according to the U.N.
Sudan plunged into chaos when simmering tensions between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in April 2023 in Khartoum and elsewhere.
The fighting has turned into a full-fledged civil war that killed tens of thousands of people, displaced over 14 million people from their homes and pushed parts of the country into famine.
The devastating conflict has been marked by atrocities including mass killings and rape, which the International Criminal Court is investigating as war crimes and crimes against humanity.
By Samy Magdy, The Associated Press
