Sudanese authorities announced on Sunday the killing of a North Darfur state government official (west), while the International Organization for Migration said that 7,500 people were displaced in the state capital, El Fasher, over the course of three days.
Sudanese authorities said that the Secretary-General of the North Darfur State Government, Mohamedai Abdullah, and his wife were killed in El Fasher when their home was targeted by a missile fired from a drone, which they said belonged to the Rapid Support Forces.
North Darfur State Governor Al-Hafiz Bakhit Mohamed and members of his cabinet mourned Abdullah and his wife, according to the official Sudanese News Agency. Mohamed stated that Abdullah and his wife "were martyred when their home was targeted by a drone missile on Saturday evening by Rapid Support Forces in El Fasher."
Displacement and insecurity
Meanwhile, the International Organization for Migration announced that 7,500 people have been displaced from Abu Shouk camp and the city of El Fasher in western Sudan due to insecurity over the past three days.
The UN agency reported in a statement that field teams tracking displacement estimated that 7,500 people were displaced from the Abu Shouk camp for internally displaced persons and the city of El Fasher due to worsening insecurity between September 17 and 19.
She explained that the displaced people have moved to other locations within El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State, and that the situation remains "extremely tense and volatile" in the city.
On Friday, the Sudanese military accused the Rapid Support Forces of launching an airstrike on a mosque in El Fasher, killing more than 75 worshippers. The Rapid Support Forces did not comment.
Guterres is concerned
For his part, UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed his concern over the "rapid deterioration of the situation" in El Fasher, the capital of Sudan's North Darfur state.
Civilians continue to bear the brunt of the devastating conflict in the country, Guterres' spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, said in a statement issued Saturday.
"With El Fasher still under a tight siege by the Rapid Support Forces for more than 500 days, attacks on civilians have escalated further in recent weeks, with reports that the majority of the residents of the Abu Shouk camp for internally displaced persons have been forced to flee due to ongoing shelling and airstrikes," Dujarric explained.
The Rapid Support Forces have imposed a siege on El Fasher since May 10, 2024, despite international warnings of the danger of the fighting, given that El Fasher is the center of humanitarian operations for the five Darfur states.
Since mid-April 2023, the army and the Rapid Support Forces have been waging a war that numerous regional and international mediation efforts have failed to end, despite the catastrophic inhumane conditions in the country.
The war has resulted in the deaths of more than 20,000 people and the displacement and displacement of approximately 15 million people, according to the United Nations and local authorities. A study conducted by American universities estimated the death toll at approximately 130,000.
