The African Union chairman condemned on Tuesday alleged "atrocities" and reported "war crimes" in Sudan's strategic hub of El-Fasher and called for an immediate halt to fighting. This comes after Sudan's army admitted on Monday it had withdrawn from the city.
After an 18-month siege, the city in western Darfur was seized in October by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group which Sudanese army troops have been fighting since April 2023.
African Union Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf expressed "deep concern over the escalating violence and reported atrocities" in El-Fasher, said a statement on social media platform X, condemning "alleged war crimes and ethnically targeted killings of civilians".
He also called for an "immediate cessation of hostilities and the opening of humanitarian corridors to allow life-saving aid to reach affected populations".
Youssouf emphasised there could be "no military solution" to the crisis, urging all parties to engage in dialogue to "commit to a peaceful, inclusive political process".
On Monday, Sudan's army admitted it had withdrawn from El-Fasher.
Its leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan announced the retreat in a broadcast on national television, but also vowed revenge and to fight "until this land is purified".
Sudanese army allies known as the Joint Forces accused paramilitaries of having "executed more than 2,000 unarmed civilians" since taking control of El-Fasher.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), at war with the army for over two years, "committed heinous crimes against innocent civilians in the city of El-Fasher, where more than 2,000 unarmed citizens were executed and killed on October 26 and 27, most of them women, children and the elderly", the Joint Forces said in a statement on Tuesday.
Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab said on Monday it had found "evidence consistent with RSF conducting alleged mass killings after capturing El-Fasher, North Darfur, according to satellite imagery analysis".
Turning point
The capture of the city could mark a significant turning point in Sudan's war, which has caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people and displaced nearly 12 million.
It means that the RSF has control over all five state capitals in Darfur, consolidating its parallel administration in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur.
The army is now confined to the north, east and centre of Sudan and is excluded from a third of Sudanese territory, a development, experts say, which raises the possibility the country could face partition.
"This represents a terrible escalation in the conflict," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told French news agency AFP, adding that "the level of suffering that we are witnessing in Sudan is unbearable".
Sudan's brutal war needs 'more than battlefield wins' after US peace push
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on Monday spoke of a growing risk of "ethnically motivated violations and atrocities" in El-Fasher.
He called for "urgent and concrete action... to ensure the protection of civilians in El-Fasher and safe passage for those trying to reach relative safety".
A video released by local activists and authenticated by AFP shows a fighter known for executing civilians in RSF-controlled areas shooting a group of unarmed civilians sitting on the ground at point-blank range.
Footage shared by pro-democracy activists purportedly showed dozens of people lying dead on the ground alongside burned-out vehicles.
Influx of wounded
AFP was unable to contact civilians in the city, where the Sudanese Journalists' Syndicate says communications, including satellite networks, have been cut off by a media blackout.
The syndicate expressed "deep concern for the safety of journalists" in El-Fasher, adding that independent reporter Muammar Ibrahim has been detained by RSF forces since Sunday.
According to the UN, more than one million people have fled the city since the start of the war and around 260,000 civilians, half of them children, remain trapped in El-Fasher without aid, where many have resorted to eating animal fodder.
Starvation spreads from camps to besieged Sudanese city of El-Fasher
The UN's migration agency said more than 26,000 people had fled the fighting in El-Fasher since Sunday, either seeking safety in the outskirts of the city or heading to Tawila, 70 kilometres to the west.
In Tawila, teams from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said they were facing a massive influx of wounded "coming from El-Fasher to the overwhelmed town's hospital".
Since Sunday evening, 130 have been hospitalised, including 15 in critical condition, MSF said in a statement.
(with AFP)
