RSF shelling kills 20 people in el-Fasher displacement camp: Committee
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The so-called local resistance committee in the city of el-Fasher blames the killings on "deliberate shelling by the (RSF) militias on the camp's market and square."
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Photo taken shows the Sub-Saharan College damaged in an artillery attack in El-Fasher, North Darfur State, western Sudan, on Aug. 26, 2024. (North Darfur State's Health Ministry/Handout via Xinhua)
Sudanese paramilitaries fired artillery into a displaced persons camp in the country's Darfur area, killing at least 20 people, according to a local committee.
"The information we have received on casualties among residents of Abu Shouk displacement camp is at least 20 killed and 32 wounded," the so-called local resistance committee in the city of el-Fasher stated.
Since May, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have encircled el-Fasher in an attempt to take control of Darfur's last major city.
The local committee blamed the killings on "deliberate shelling by the (RSF) militias on the camp's market and square," without mentioning the time of the attack.
According to the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification assessment, intense fighting has brought the Zamzam camp near el-Fasher into famine.
Since the army-aligned administration reopened the Adre border with Chad this month, almost no relief has reached Zamzam or the surrounding area, and barely a trickle of aid has made its way into Darfur.
The United Nations announced Tuesday that 38 trucks had passed, bringing 1,250 tons of supplies for 119,000 people in the huge Darfur area, where over five million people are internally displaced.
Zamzam is home to over half a million people currently under threat of starvation.
Sudan's al-Burhan boycotts Geneva talks, says will 'fight 100 years'
The head of the Transitional Sovereignty Council of Sudan General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said that his government will not join the peace talks being held in Geneva with the RSF.
"We will not go to Geneva... we will fight for 100 years," al-Burhan said in a press briefing in Port Sudan on Saturday.
The talks, organized by the United States and co-hosted by Saudi Arabia and Switzerland, commenced on Wednesday in a closed-door setting, with representatives from the RSF and delegations from several regional countries, including Egypt, the UAE, and other African nations, in addition to the United Nations.
The Sudanese government has voiced concerns over the participation of the UAE in the dialogue, accusing the Emirati government of providing military and financial support to the RSF in the ongoing war in Sudan.
Tom Perrielo, the US Special Envoy for Sudan, insisted that the talks go ahead even without al-Burhan's delegation, saying that the people of Sudan cannot wait longer for a ceasefire.
The discussions ended on Friday without reaching a ceasefire agreement. However, progress was made to secure aid access via two routes in the country now facing one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
Meanwhile, Sudan continues to suffer from accumulating humanitarian crises, including widespread hunger, displacement, lack of medical care, and thousands of deaths among civilians.
