Over 220 people killed in lated fighting in Sudan's El-Fasher

 

People displaced from Sudan's Jazira state arrive in packed vehicles to the entrance of the eastern city of Gedaref on June 10, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. [AFP]

Fighting in Sudan's El-Fasher, the last city in Darfur outside the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces' control, has killed more than 220 people, a medical charity said Friday.

El-Fasher has become a focal point of the nearly year-long war pitting Sudan's military against the RSF, led by former deputy commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The battle for the city, seen as crucial for humanitarian aid in a region on the brink of famine, has raged for more than a month.

The charity Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF) said fighting in El-Fasher had killed at least 226 people and wounded 1,418.

The overall death toll is thought to be far higher, however, with casualties unable to get treatment amid ongoing air strikes, shelling and ground combat.

"The situation in El-Fasher is chaotic," said Michel-Olivier Lacharite, head of MSF's emergency programme.

Complicating matters, the closure of Southern Hospital, originally a maternity facility, has forced people to seek treatment at the Saudi Hospital.

Intense fighting for El-Fasher erupted on May 10, prompting a siege by the RSF that has trapped hundreds of thousands of civilians.

On Thursday, the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an end to the siege.

Meanwhile, in El-Geneina, capital of West Darfur, the United Nations estimates that between 10,000 and 15,000 lives have been lost.

The conflict, which began in April 2023 between Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Daglo's RSF, has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and displaced more than nine million people, according to the UN.

The Security Council's latest resolution calls for an immediate ceasefire, unhindered humanitarian access and compliance with an arms embargo on Sudan, following a previous unsuccessful ceasefire call in March coinciding with Ramadan.