Sudan food markets burned in North & South Darfur

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: Lately, I find myself double checking dates on news reports because the content is so similar to the start of Darfur war. 

At least this time the world can see verifiable and timely satellite imagery and detect truthful news from Darfur. 20 yrs ago it was like from another planet. No maps of Darfur were on the internet. Now we can see evildoings.

Starve Darfuris of food was a tactic used in Darfur war. Force them to flee from fire so they're traumatised and controlled by chaos, fear and anxiety. 

Report from dnyuz.com

By New York Times

Friday 21 April 2023

Large Food Market Burned in Darfur Camp, Satellite Images Show

A large market for food and other supplies serving a camp for displaced people was partly damaged during a fire on Wednesday, reflecting the dangerous toll recent fighting has taken on Sudan’s most vulnerable citizens. The extent of the destruction was evident in satellite imagery and social media videos analyzed by The New York Times, which found that the blaze destroyed or damaged approximately 18 acres of the market.

Over the past week, Sudan has been engulfed in violence as the Army and a paramilitary group, Rapid Support Forces (R.S.F.), vie for control of the country. Already, the Abu Shouk camp, located in El Fasher, the regional capital of North Darfur, was experiencing supply shortages.

According to Thomas Okedi, the area manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council, the camp hadn’t received any aid in the week before the fire started. He blamed the current fighting and turmoil for the blaze, saying it started because of a stray bullet or looters igniting one of the shops, and then spread quickly through some of the makeshift structures.

A satellite image from Wednesday afternoon shows the fires still burning, with small shops on the eastern side of the market reduced to ash, and flames consuming other structures.

A video shared on social media shows the blaze, with a man taking the video saying: “May God help us. This market is completely destroyed.” Another video, taken a few hours later, shows the charred, smoking remains of shops and equipment.

“As of right now, Abu Shouk market is operating at very limited capacity,” Mr. Okedi said. “With the reduction of food supplies and the stopping of humanitarian aid, the situation is getting more dire.”

Many humanitarian groups have halted their operations because of the fighting, and there are growing concerns about how people will get access to food and water.

Fighting has been reported in El Fasher by Doctors Without Borders, which said that it had treated almost 300 wounded civilians, 44 of whom died from their injuries, in the city this week.

Nearly 900,000 internally displaced people lived in North Darfur before the current escalation of violence. The Abu Shouk camp alone is home to more than 100,000 people, according to Mr. Okedi. Some of them were displaced by a genocidal campaign in the early 2000s waged by the Sudanese Army and so-called Janjaweed militias. The R.S.F. grew out of the Janjaweed, and is now fighting its former ally, the Army.

Another food market, 100 miles south of El Fasher in the capital of South Darfur, Nyala, went up in flames on Sunday. Satellite imagery from April 20 shows the aftermath.

A few homes less than a mile from the market also burned down. Additionally, the satellite imagery shows signs of looting at various places in the city, and unidentified security forces, including tanks, positioned in a residential area.

At least 413 people have been killed and 3,551 others around the country have been wounded in the violence, the World Health Organization reported on Friday.

The post Large Food Market Burned in Darfur Camp, Satellite Images Show appeared first on New York Times.

View original: https://dnyuz.com/2023/04/21/large-food-market-burned-in-darfur-camp-satellite-images-show/