First UN visit to Sudan’s El-Fasher finds traumatised civilians amid reports of mass atrocities

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By: FRANCE 24

A small UN humanitarian team was able to visit Sudan‘s El-Fasher, a city that fell to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in October amid reports of mass atrocities. They found traumatised civilians living without water or sanitation in a city haunted by famine, according to UN aid coordinator Denise Brown.

El-Fasher fell to the paramilitary RSF in October after more than 500 days of siege, and last Friday a small UN humanitarian team was able to make its first short visit in almost two years.

WatchNew horrors emerge after Sudan’s RSF paramilitary takes over El-Fasher

The capture of the city was reportedly accompanied by mass atrocities, including massacres, torture and sexual violence. Satellite pictures reviewed by AFP show what appear to be mass graves.

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Brown described the city as a “crime scene”, but said investigations would be carried out by human rights experts while her office focuses on restoring aid to the survivors.

“We weren’t able to see any of the detainees, and we believe there are detainees,” she said.

‘Epicentre of human suffering’

From a humanitarian point of view, she said, El-Fasher remains Sudan’s “epicentre of human suffering” and the city – which once held more than a million people – is still facing a famine.

“El-Fasher is a ghost of its former self,” Brown said in an interview.

“We don’t have enough information yet to conclude how many people remain there, but we know large parts of the city are destroyed. The people who remain, their homes have been destroyed.”

“These people are living in very precarious situations,” warned Brown, a Canadian diplomat and the United Nations’ humanitarian coordinator in Sudan.  

“Some of them in abandoned buildings. Some of them… in very rudimentary conditions, plastic sheeting, no sanitation, no water. So these are very undignified, unsafe conditions for people.”

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Source: france24.com