In Geneva, on November 6, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council announced that it will hold an emergency session next week on the situation in the city of El-Fasher, Sudan, which has been severely devastated following the occupation by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The announcement stated that the emergency session will take place following a formal request from the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Norway. The event has already received the support of 24 members of the UN Human Rights Council.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized control of the strategic city of El-Fasher last month, and numerous reports have documented executions, sexual violence, looting, attacks on aid workers, and abductions occurring in and around the city. In addition, the violence has forced more than 65,000 people to flee.
Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported the “massacre of over 460 patients and healthcare workers” at the last functioning hospital in El-Fasher. The UN also confirmed that at least 25 women were gang-raped after RSF gunmen entered a shelter for displaced persons near El-Fasher University in the western part of the city.
In a recent statement, the RSF agreed to a proposed humanitarian ceasefire in Sudan to address the war’s impact on civilians and ensure the delivery of urgent humanitarian aid.
Sudan, a country in Northeast Africa, witnessed a revolution in 2019 that ended three decades of rule by former President Omar al-Bashir, leading to the establishment of a transitional government headed by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.
However, conflict erupted when the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), loyal to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, allied with the RSF led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo to overthrow Prime Minister Hamdok’s government.
With the backing of the army, General al-Burhan became the de facto leader of the country, but the violence did not subside. In 2023, the RSF and allied groups declared the formation of a parallel government headed by General Dagalo, which remains unrecognized internationally.
The recent focal point of the struggle between the two factions is the city of El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state and the last stronghold of government forces in the Darfur region of western Sudan.
The RSF aims to capture El-Fasher to gain full control of the area. Over the past 18 months, RSF fighters have intensified their campaign against the city, cutting off most supply and logistical routes.
El-Fasher’s defense consists of a Sudanese army unit along with allied Darfuri militia groups. They are stationed at a base near the city’s airport, resisting RSF attacks.
As the RSF tightened its siege, Sudanese forces inside the city responded by building an earthen barricade around the city, trapping approximately 250,000 civilians inside, unable to access food or other essential supplies.
At the last operational hospital in the city, doctors have resorted to using livestock feed to care for malnourished children. Living conditions in the city are dire, with famine spreading, yet no one surrenders for fear of mass killings by the RSF, Michelle Gavin, an Africa research expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, noted.
By October 26, El-Fasher had fallen, as RSF fighters, using armored vehicles and tanks, breached the earthen barricade, and the commanders of the Sudanese army garrison units withdrew. However, the Sudanese army’s retreat did not prevent the ensuing massacre. RSF fighters quickly unleashed their fury on civilians and trapped soldiers within the city.
On October 30, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that the RSF had shot and killed more than 460 patients along with their relatives inside the city’s only remaining operational hospital and had abducted six healthcare workers.
On October 31, ABC News cited satellite images verified by the Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) at Yale School of Public Health, showing piles of corpses so numerous that blood stained the grounds of the city’s sole hospital, as well as across residential areas, suburbs, and areas near military bases.
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