The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has driven thousands more into Sudan as it prepares for a new offensive following atrocities during its offensive. In al-Fasher West Darfur region.
A report released late Sunday by the United Nations warned of humanitarian consequences as the paramilitary offensive continues to force thousands of people from their homes.
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RSF, led by Mohammed Hamdan DagaloWidely known as Hemedati, released a video the same day, saying it was “massing a large force, announcing the imminent liberation of al-Obeid”.
The capital of North Kordofan state in central Sudan is east of Darfur, where the RSF killed and displaced thousands of people last week after seizing control of al-Fashar from government forces.
The Sudanese Armed Forces currently control Al-Obeid. However, both sides have prepared for a major battle over the city.
In the RSF video, a soldier holding a weapon boasted that “all our forces are assembled” in Bara, 50 km (30 miles) northeast of El-Obeid.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimated in a report released on Sunday that more than 1,200 people were displaced from Bara and Um Rawaba in North Kordofan on Friday alone.
In this, 36,825 people have been displaced from many areas North Kordofan since last week.
In South Kordofan, IOM said field teams estimated that 360 people were displaced from the towns of Abasia and Delami on Saturday. Further displacement is expected as the situation remains “tense and highly fluid”, the UN agency said.
As the RSF and the army prepared for battle in al-Obeid, the humanitarian situation It is catastrophic throughout Sudan, especially in and around Al-Fashar.
An additional 8,631 people were displaced from Al-Fashar, the capital of North Darfur, over the weekend, according to United Nations estimates. This means that more than 70,000 people have been displaced from the area since the RSF captured the last major town in Darfur on October 26, ousting the Sudanese armed forces after an 18-month siege.
Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told reporters in New York on Friday that reports of “serious violations” including the summary execution of several Red Crescent volunteers had emerged since RSF seized Bara last week.
Thousands of hungry and desperate people are still trapped in Al-Fashar while the fate of many thousands who Ran away but did not come to Tavi or other nearby cities are unknown.
A video circulating online on Monday showed dozens of bodies strewn on the streets around al-Fashar.
The UN and international aid agencies have verified numerous accounts from survivors who say that RSF soldiers carried out mass executions, torture, rape and sexual abuse, and holding people for ransom.
“We are hearing horrific stories from many people who have come here and who were here a few weeks before the RSF captured el-Fashar. Some of them said that when they tried to leave the city under siege, they were stopped and their relatives, especially men, were abducted and imprisoned by the RSF. There are many mothers and children here,” Al Jazeera said in a report from the northern town of Hibbab. Sudan.
“Others say they have seen their relatives killed by the RSF on social media. Some have witnessed artillery strikes leaving headless and mutilated corpses.”
Drought was confirmed in two regions
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, announced on Monday that drought has been detected in El-Fashar and Kadugli in South Kordofan.
The UN-backed World Hunger Monitor, which confirmed in August Famine spreads in Gaza20 other areas in Darfur and Kordofan are also at serious risk of slipping into drought conditions.
It is estimated that 375,000 people were already living in drought conditions in Darfur and Kordofan as of September, while an additional 6.3 million people across the country are considered to be suffering from extreme hunger and at risk of falling into famine.
Without a ceasefire and safe humanitarian access, more Sudanese will die of hunger and malnutrition, the IPC said.
In the northern kingdom, Sudanese have turned to al-Dabba in large numbers. Many people there have already been displaced several times, but some are preparing to move once again to another refugee camp outside the city because they fear clashes with them in al-Dabba.
“The streets were full of dead bodies,” Yahya Abdullah, who escaped al-Fashar with his four children, told Al Jazeera from al-Dabba. He had earlier lost his wife in an RSF drone attack.
He said that RSF soldiers machine-gunned people, including children, on the streets of El-Fashar. “I heard one of them say, ‘Kill them all.’
The ICC investigates war crimes
The RSF is now actively being investigated for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC), the court’s lawyers announced on Monday.
They said in a statement from The Hague that they were taking “immediate steps” to “preserve and collect relevant evidence for use in future prosecutions” related to crimes in Al-Fashar after the RSF captured the city.
The court described the atrocities as “part of a wider pattern of violence plaguing the entire Darfur region” and said they “may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity”.
Specific types of crimes under investigation are sexual violence, including racially-targeted attacks, use of rape as a weapon, kidnapping, indiscriminate attacks on civilians, and attacks on medical facilities.
In a Briefing in JuneICC Deputy Prosecutor Najahat Shamim Khan said there are “reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed and are continuing in Darfur”.