Sudan: Thousands could die as the RSF Janjaweed militia close in on North Darfur's capital city Al-Fashir

SOME 800,000 in North Darfur's capital city Al-Fashir have no escape route from incoming attacks by Hemeti's Rapid Support Forces' Janjaweed militia as violence in Sudan spreads. Al-Fashir is the last major city in the huge western Darfur region not yet under control of the RSF which has taken control of four other Darfur state capitals over the past year. 700,000 IDPs fled to camps in Al-Fashir to escape violence in other regions. Read more.

From The New Arab (London) www.newarab.com
Dated Friday, 26 April, 2024 - here is a copy of its report in full:

Thousands could die as Rapid Support Forces close in Al-Fashir in Sudan's Darfur province

Some 800,000 people inside Al-Fashir city have no escape route from incoming attacks by the Rapid Support Forces' Janjaweed as violence in Sudan spreads.

Photo: Rival military groups have uprooted millions in Sudan and left the country in a dangerous humanitarian crisis [Getty]

The capital of the Sudanese state North Darfur is facing an imminent catastrophe that is threatening some 800,000 people, as the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) closes in on the last stronghold of rival Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) following weeks of battles.

Sudanese activists and international researchers warned on Thursday that the city of Al-Fashir is "about to be under siege" as the RSF gains ground in the surrounding province, terrorising villages and conducting intense bombing campaigns against the Sudanese army.

RSF is attempting to gain control of the city from the SAF and have begun closing in with its troops preparing for a full-scale invasion, according to researchers.

Al-Fashir is the last major city in the huge western Darfur region not yet under the control of the RSF which has taken control of four other Darfur state capitals over the past year. Some 700,000 internally displaced people fled to camps in Al-Fashir having escaped violence in other regions.

The latest round of violence began in the African country in April 2023 and snowballed into a civil war when long-simmering tensions between the military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the RSF paramilitary commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, broke out into street battles in the capital, Khartoum.

The RSF has been blamed for mass killings of civilians - which are often ethnically driven - and numerous human rights violation, including terrifying levels of sexual violence.

The war has uprooted swathes of the population and humanitarian workers have described the conditions as among the worst in the world.

The UN said that some 20 million people in Sudan are struggling to find enough food to eat and that famine is now widespread.

Last week, UN officials warned the Security Council that 800,000 people in Al-Fashir were in "extreme and immediate danger" as fighting was moving closer. 

[HERE is a copy of a post at X by Radio Dabanga English 5:42PM April 25, 2024: "Refugees International warns of imminent #RSF attacks on #El Fasher in #NorthDarfur, home to 800,000 civilians. Immediate action needed #SudanNews #KeepEyesOnSudan #sudan_war_updates"]

Refugees International warns of imminent #RSF attacks on #El Fasher in #NorthDarfur, home to 800,000 civilians. Immediate action needed #SudanNews #KeepEyesOnSudan #sudan_war_updates https://t.co/ZheRag22iH

— Radio Dabanga (@RadioDabanga) April 25, 2024

There are fears fighting in the city could trigger inter-communal violence throughout the Darfur province which surfaced during conflicts in the 2000s, and could spill into neighbouring Chad.

Adam Mousa, director of Darfur Victims Support and Sudan Defenders, said that in April the RSF and aligned Arab militias fought with the Sudanese army and attacked 15 villages in the east of Darfur, forcing thousands to flee to al-Shagra town and the Zamzam displacement camp in Al-Fashir.

"Most of the displaced have no water, food or medicine, and at the same time the attacks are continuing," Mousa said during an online media briefing on Thursday which included activists, Sudanese civilians, researchers, and aid workers.

Mousa, who is from Darfur, said his organisation has requested to begin a ceasefire initiative and sent letters to SAF and RSF and are "waiting for a response".

Some eleven villages there have been burnt in recent days, according to Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale School of Public Health.

It has been challenging for journalists and humanitarians to gain on the ground access since the outbreak of war and as a result, observers have been relying on open-source intelligence to track the conflict.

Raymond's Humanitarian Research Lab has been closely documenting the RSF and SAF movements using open-source data and satellite imagery, and last week sounded the alarm to the international community about RSF’s imminent attack on Al-Fashir.

"We have a city about to be under siege," Raymond said.

RSF fighters are about eight kilometres from the main SAF infantry base and open-source reports and imagery collected in the past day shows RSF fighters moving on the city from multiple directions, Raymond explained.

"The situation for those in Al-Fashir will likely get significantly worse in the coming hours and days," he said.

"At this point, civilians and the Sudan Armed Forces do not have a clear escape route to exit Al Fashir. We call this phenomenon, in our business, a kill box.

"The space for intervention is probably gone," he added.

Raymond fears that if the RSF behave in line with the mass atrocities conducted over the past year, the number of casualties in the region could exceed the 110,000 deaths of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

It is estimated that some 14,000 people have been killed in the war since last April, though some projections are far larger.

The RSF, which is formed of Janjaweed fighters aligned with former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, have conducted ruthless campaigns against civilians and there are fears they will conduct massacres in Al-Fashir.

There have been widespread human rights violations documented by RSF fighters, including cases of sexual violence against women and girls.

Allegations of rape, forced marriage, sex trafficking in Khartoum, Darfur and Kordofan have been recorded. Rights groups say the truce scale of the crisis remains unknown due to underreporting and fear of reprisals.

Some 1.1 million people are internally displaced in Sudan while more than 3 million are refugees in neighbouring Chad, Eritrea and Egypt, according to figures from the UN refugee agency.

Hala Al-Karib, Sudan Regional Director of the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa, said that the anticipated invasion of Al-Fashir has been a "ticking time bomb" considering the number of local militias present in the city.

She said the city has been an important hub for activists and human rights defenders and hosts many displaced families. The only hospital in Sudan for survivors of sexual violence is in the city, Al-Karib said.

The war has taken a spiral in recent months due to foreign interference, which observers say has prolonged the conflict and fuelled new levels of danger.

RSF's leader is reportedly receiving support from Russian mercenaries and allied Arab communities coming from the Horn of Africa, as well as Libya.

US officials recently said the UAE was providing financial and military support to RSF, which has been accused of committing crimes against humanity. Iran and Egypt are believed to be supporting Sudan's army with military drones.

Earlier this month, France hosted a donor aid conference to mark one year since the outbreak of war and garner much needed attention to the humanitarian disaster.

Western officials  are seeking an end to the fighting through diplomacy, but critics say it has done little to defuse the violence.

View original: https://www.newarab.com/news/mass-casualties-feared-rsf-encircles-sudans-al-fashir

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Related

Sudan Watch - February 28, 2020 

Sudan: RSF to turn Zurrug, N Darfur into a dream city

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2023/10/sudan-rsf-to-turn-zurrug-n-darfur-into.html

Sudan Watch - March 02, 2024

Sudan: In Zamzam camp, North Darfur, the death rate is catastrophic. At least 1 child dies every 2 hours

Malnutrition and disease are rife at the ‘overwhelmed’ Zamzam camp, a host to 300,000 internally displaced people, one of hundreds in Sudan, where war has displaced nearly 8 million people. The scale is simply terrifying. Zamzam is just one camp. There are hundreds of others in Sudan. 

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/03/sudan-in-zamzam-camp-north-darfur-death.html

Sudan Watch - March 13, 2024

Sudan: 3.9M people food insecure in Khartoum state. 

Khartoum's partly a ghost town, only 20-30% remain

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/03/sudan-39m-people-food-insecure-in.html

Sudan Watch - March 14, 2024

South Sudan Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala: Our people ‘on brink of destitution, slowly perishing’

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/03/south-sudan-bishop-eduardo-hiiboro.html

Sudan Watch - March 17, 2024

Ali Karti, SG of Sudan’s Islamic Movement, widely seen as a mastermind of Sudan's war, has now announced a truce with RSF will never be accepted

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/03/ali-karti-sg-of-sudans-islamic-movement.html

Sudan Watch - March 29, 2024

UK CHANNEL 4 NEWS VIDEO FROM CHAD-SUDAN. 

UK doubles its aid to Sudan to £89m as crisis escalates

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/03/uk-channel-4-news-video-from-chad-sudan.html

Sudan Watch - April 06, 2024

SAVE SUDAN. STOP WAR IN SUDAN. 

Tagadum coalition unveils vision to end war and rebuild state

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/04/save-sudan-stop-war-in-sudan-tagadum.html

Sudan Watch - April 21, 2024

VIDEO & TRANSCRIPT: 

Situation in Sudan ‘probably the most disastrous in the world’ says ex-PM Hamdok

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/04/video-transcript-situation-in-sudan.html

Sudan Watch - April 22, 2024

Sudan: SpaceX to shut off Starlink access for users outside availability areas by 30 April 2024

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/04/sudan-spacex-to-shut-off-starlink.html

Sudan Watch - April 24, 2024

Sudan: Displacement and recent clashes in North Darfur, Apr 01 - Apr 17 2024 & Apr 14 - Apr 16 2024

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/04/sudan-displacement-and-recent-clashes.html

CSIS - April 25, 2024

By Cameron Hudson 

Preventing Another Darfur Genocide

https://www.csis.org/analysis/preventing-another-darfur-genocide

Radio Dabanga - April 25, 2024

Int’l NGO: ‘UNSC needs to urgently intervene in North Darfur’

Refugees International, a prominent INGO, issued a grave warning on Tuesday indicating that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are about to launch imminent attacks on the city of El Fasher, North Darfur, home to 800,000 civilians, which requires urgent action.

https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/intl-ngo-unsc-needs-to-urgently-intervene-in-north-darfur

END

Sudan: Conflict in Al Fasher capital of N. Darfur State

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: DTM (Displacement Tracking Matrix) Sudan's Early Warning Flash Alerts provides immediate updates on incidents and sudden displacement in Sudan. Here's one on North Darfur. 

To give some context, I've listed five reports including one of Hemeti, leader of Janjaweed RSF, aiming to turn Zurrug, North Darfur into a dream city. 

Hemeti is supported and equipped by several foreign countries. He spent much of the last 20 years terrorising and killing Sudanese people in Darfur, Sudan to force them off their land and make them too scared to return.

If memory serves, the Janjaweed were incentivised by Sudan's President Bashir who promised the militia leaders they could keep the land and what they looted for stopping Darfur rebels advancing and reaching Khartoum.

Sheikh Musa Hilal controls huge swathes of Sudan and protects millions of Sudanese, ruling with benevolence. He's an old-style warrior who, like Mr Bashir, does not believe in taking hand-outs as it is not part of their culture.

Reportedly, Hemeti has grand plans for Sudan's remote western province. He feels at home in Darfur. He didn't fit in with the elites in Khartoum. Fighting and killing to take and get what he wants is what he knows best.

Hemeti is semi-illiterate. I saw footage of Messrs Burhan and Hemeti sitting next to each other at a meeting. While Hemeti lifted pages of a document, Gen Burhan's lengthy smiley sideways glance at Hemeti's hand was telling.

Surely, Sheikh Musa Hilal of North Darfur knows all about Hemeti's grand plans for North Darfur. Sheikh Hilal holds a lot of sway in North Darfur and beyond. Read more in the related reports posted here below.

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Flash alert from DTM

Dated Sunday, 18 February 2024 - here is a copy in full:

DTM Sudan Flash Alert: Conflict in Al Fasher (Al Fasher Town), North Darfur - Update Fourteen

On 16 February 2024, clashes renewed between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Al Fasher Town of Al Fasher locality, North Darfur. Reportedly, SAF conducted airstrikes targeting RSF positions across northern and eastern neighborhoods of Al Fasher Town. 

Field teams reported that the event led to widespread displacement. Affected households sought refuge in southern neighborhoods within Al Fasher Town. Estimates on the number of displaced individuals are yet to be confirmed. The situation remains tense and unpredictable. 

DTM is monitoring the situation closely and will provide further information on displacement and population mobility across Sudan, on a weekly basis, via its Weekly Displacement Snapshot.
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POSTCRIPT from Sudan Watch Editor

Just spent an hour down a rabbit hole of links and reading a dearth of word salads in an effort to find out who is behind DTM and how it is funded. I may be wrong, it appears that DTM and IOM are funded by the United Nations. 

Curiously, DTM website translates for English, Spanish, French but not Arabic, Swahili, Russian, Chinese or other languages. Why Spanish? I don't know. Here’s what I found and put in a nutshell:

IOM's (International Organisation for Migration) Global Data Institute (GDI), established in 2022, works to enhance the availability and use of data to achieve stronger governance outcomes and positive impacts for migrants and societies in line with IOM's Migration Data Strategy.  DTM (Displacement Tracking Matrix) is one of the founding pillars of the GDI, alongside the Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC). 

The Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) https://dtm.iom.int gathers, analyses and disseminates information on the mobility, vulnerabilities, and needs of displaced and mobile populations.

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Related

Sudan Watch - February 16, 2024

Situation Update Feb 2024: 10 months into conflict between SAF & RSF, war in Sudan is taking a new turn

"The mobilisation of rebel groups and ethnic militias in North Darfur forced the RSF to avoid a direct confrontation. In Kordofan, a sustained collaboration between the SAF and al-Hilu may push the RSF out of Dilling and other areas where the al-Hilu faction of the SPLM-N holds sway. However, clashes between these collaborators elsewhere in South Kordofan add to the uncertainty of the situation." 

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/02/situation-update-feb-2024-10-months.html

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Sudan Watch - February 14, 2024

Darfur tribal leaders agree with Sudanese Sheikh Musa Hilal to lead initiative to stop war in Sudan

A civil delegation of tribal leaders in Darfur states announced that it has agreed with the head of the Revolutionary Awakening Council, Sheikh Musa Hilal, to lead a national initiative to stop the war between the army and the Rapid Support.  

The delegation, which included the principals of the tribes of Tarjum, Fallata and Rizeigat and notables of a number of tribes in the states of South, East, Central and West Darfur, visited Sheikh Musa Hilal in the suburb of Mistriha in North Darfur state, and the delegation spent about a week during which he held several meetings with notables of the region.

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/02/darfur-tribal-leaders-agree-with.html

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Sudan Watch - October 06, 2023

Sudan: Chief of Arab Rizeigat Mahameed clan to mediate between warring tribes in South Darfur

“Sheikh Musa Hilal will lead the initiative as head of the council and native administration* leader, along with other native administration notables and community figures from Darfur and some other states of Sudan”. A Revolutionary Awakening Council spokesperson said that “the root causes of the clashes need to be defined and addressed, to stop them forever”.

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2023/10/sudan-chief-of-arab-rizeigat-mahameed.html

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Sudan Watch - October 05, 2023

Sudan: RSF to turn Zurrug, N Darfur into a dream city

THE ruthless leader of Sudan's Arab militia has grand plans for the remote western province. But the transformation of Zurrug risks more unrest. Read more in this report from the archives of Sudan Watch, copied here in full.

Blood, sand and gold: victor’s city rises from ashes of Sudan’s civil war

Report from the The Observer - www.theguardian.com

Observer dispatch Darfur

By KLAAS VAN DIJKEN

Dated Saturday 29 February 2020, 17.05 GMT

Photo: Children at the school in Zurrug sing anti-racism songs that praise the Rapid Support Forces. Photograph: Klaas van Dijken/Lighthouse Reports

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2023/10/sudan-rsf-to-turn-zurrug-n-darfur-into.html

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Sudan Watch - December 21, 2023

Understanding the Sudanese Civil War. Muslim Brotherhood is to blame. Janjaweed's home is Darfur

"The first thing [Sudanese] Pastor Kuku says when I ask him about the situation [in Sudan] is that the Muslim Brotherhood is to blame. “As far as they are concerned, they must be in control,” he says. “No one is allowed to govern the country while they are around — the country will be ruined, or they rule it… They feel that anyone else who might rule are infidels.” 

The Brotherhood is an Islamic organization active in many countries. It supported the old dictator al-Bashir, and now supports his successor al-Burhan. The trouble is, Kuku says, the Brotherhood does not feel any sense of patriotism or belonging to Sudan. Their loyalty is to the Brotherhood. If they can rule Sudan, good — if not, let it be destroyed. If Sudan is ruined, they can move on. That’s their perspective.

The Janjaweed, which is currently occupying the capital Khartoum, isn’t any better. The Janjaweed just want to loot and pillage, in Kuku’s view. They don’t feel that they will get to keep Khartoum, so they want to destroy it out of envy and spite". Read more.

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2023/12/understanding-sudanese-civil-war-muslim.html

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UPDATE Wed 21 Feb 2024: changed title of this post from "Sudan: Conflict in Al Fasher Town, North Darfur" to "Sudan: Conflict in Al Fasher capital of North Darfur State"

END