Sudan civil war: More than 700 killed in siege of Darfur’s al-Fashir, says UN rights chief

UN human rights chief urged the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to end the ongoing siege of Sudan’s al-Fashir where more than 700 people have been killed since May.

In a statement issued on Friday the siege and ”the relentless fighting are devastating lives every day on a massive scale,”. ”This alarming situation cannot continue. The Rapid Support Forces must end this horrible siege.”

The UN rights office said it had documented the deaths of at least 782 civilians and more than 1,143 injured since May, citing evidence-based partly on interviews of those who had fled the area. It said the casualties came amid regular and intensive shelling by the RSF of densely populated residential areas as well as recurrent airstrikes by the Sudanese Armed Forces.

Such attacks on civilians may amount to war crimes, the U.N. human rights office said. Both sides have repeatedly denied deliberately attacking civilians and have accused each other of doing so in al-Fashir and its surroundings.

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Al-Fashir, a key battleground between the RSF and the Sudanese army, remains a focal point in the fight for control of Darfur. Observers fear that an RSF victory could trigger ethnic retribution, similar to the violence seen in West Darfur last year.

Earlier this month, the RSF attacked the region’s main hospital, killing at least nine people. Meanwhile, nearby Zamzam camp, home to over half a million people facing famine, has been targeted by RSF artillery in the past two weeks, displacing thousands.

With inputs from agencies.