EL-FASHER, Sudan — Hundreds of bodies lie in the streets of el-Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state, after severe violence in the city last week, with no one to bury them.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized the city last week and killed at least 1,500 people, including about 460 at a single hospital.
The United Nations said civilians trapped in the city are in grave danger. Many have been killed, and the wounded lie out in the open. About 36,000 people have fled the city for Tawila, 70 km away, where more than 650,000 displaced people had already taken shelter.
A woman named Hayat said seven RSF members entered her home, looted it and killed her 16-year-old son in front of her. “We saw countless bodies lying in the streets, and no one could rescue the wounded,” she said.
Another survivor, Hussein, said the situation in el-Fasher is dire. “The dead are lying in the streets, and there is no one to bury them,” he said. Meanwhile, the Norwegian Refugee Council, which is operating at the Tawila displacement camp, said the number of people arriving remains low. The council fears that many of those who set out died along the way.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general, said $20 million has been approved from the Central Emergency Response Fund to bolster relief operations in Darfur.
“We are deeply concerned by the killing of more than 450 people,” Dujarric said. “Among them were patients, health workers and civilians.”
Sudan expert Shayna Lewis said the killings in Darfur are deeply harrowing. “We warned the international community about the risk of this genocide for more than a year, but there was little response,” she said.
Lewis said satellite imagery from space also shows the bloody scenes — vast stretches of earth tinted reddish, with shadows resembling bodies.
El-Fasher, scarred by violence, still faces severe shortages of food, water and medicine. Humanitarian organizations describe it as one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent times.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report