Thousands flee El-Fasher amidst ongoing conflict in Sudan
More than 62,000 people are believed to have fled the Sudanese city of el-Fasher between Sunday and Wednesday, after the last stronghold in the Darfur region was taken by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces grou p.
More than 62,000 people are believed to have fled the Sudanese city of el-Fasher between Sunday and Wednesday, after the last stronghold in the Darfur region was taken by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces grou p.
Far fewer have reached Tawila, a nearby refugee camp.
The Norwegian Refugee Council, which manages the camp, put the number at around 5,000 people, raising fears over the fate of tens of thousands.
Communications are down in el-Fasher, located deep in a semi-desert region some 800 kilometers (500 miles) southwest of Khartoum, the capital, meaning accounts of what happened there are still emerging.
Sarah Ahmed, a Sudanese woman displaced from el-Fasher to Tawila, said she realised she needed to get her family out of the town after successive tragedies.
Her eldest son, 17, was killed in one of the artillery bombardments that plagued the city for a year and a half.
The Norwegian Refugee Council, which manages the camp, put the number at around 5,000 people, raising fears over the fate of tens of thousands.
Then she lost her husband to illness, and a stray bullet wounded her ten-year-old son.
"In the end, I finally accepted that it was necessary to leave. In the end, there was no food left, as they say, even with your money, you can't find anything to eat or drink," she said, adding that she hopes her ten-year-old son can recover from his injuries.
The Norwegian Refugee Council said people were arriving at the camp with broken limbs and other wounds, and some with injuries sustained months ago.
Many children arrived at the camp who had lost their parents in the fighting.
Of the 70 children younger than five that arrived in Tawila on Monday, 40 were severely malnourished, according to Doctors Without Borders.
The fall of el-Fasher heralds a new phase of the brutal, two-year war between the RSF and the military in Africa's third-largest country.
The war has killed more than 40,000 people, according to U.N. figures, but aid groups say that is an undercount and the true number could be many times higher.
The war has displaced more than 14 million people and fueled outbreaks of diseases believed to have killed thousands.
Famine has been declared in parts of Darfur, a region the size of Spain, and other parts of the country.
Based on reporting by Africanews.
