UN says more than 480 killed in Sudan’s North Darfur since April 10

Nearly 500 civilians have been confirmed killed in Sudan’s North Darfur in the past two weeks, the United Nations said Friday, condemning “horrifying” numbers of deaths and widespread sexual violence.

The UN human rights office said it had listed at least 481 civilians killed in North Darfur since April 10 and that “the actual number is likely much higher”.

The state has become a key battleground in the war that erupted on April 15, 2023 between the regular army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), headed by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The UN said its toll includes “at least 210 civilians, including nine medical professionals” killed in the Zamzam displacement camp between April 11-13.

It also included “at least 129 civilians” killed between Sunday and Thursday this week in El Fasher city, Um Kedada district and the Abu Shouk displacement camp, the rights office said in a statement.

In addition, it said, “dozens of people were reported to have died due to lack of food, water and medical care” in detention facilities run by the RSF or “while walking for days in harsh conditions in an attempt to flee violence”.

The war has left tens of thousands dead and triggered what aid agencies describe as the world’s largest displacement and hunger crises.

The rights office said the North Darfur fighting had displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians, many of whom had already been fled their homes during the conflict.

The displaced “face dire conditions amid continued restrictions on access to lifesaving humanitarian assistance,” it said.

The agency also warned that “ethnically motivated attacks targeting specific communities” were occurring again in Darfur. A war in Darfur that erupted in 2003 left tens of thousands dead and was marked by attacks on ethnic groups.

“The rising number of civilian casualties and the widespread reports of sexual violence are horrifying,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said in the statement.

His office, he said, had “heard accounts of people being abducted from Zamzam IDP camp and of women, girls and boys being raped or gang raped there or as they tried to escape the attacks”.

Turk also voiced his grave concern at continued attacks on humanitarian workers and medical personnel.

“The systems to assist victims in many areas are on the verge of collapse, medical workers are themselves under threat and even water sources have been deliberately attacked,” he said.

“The suffering of the Sudanese people is hard to imagine, harder to comprehend and simply impossible to accept.”

Meanwhile, gunmen killed at least 20 people in an attack in a gold mining village in Nigeria’s northwestern Zamfara state, residents and Amnesty International said.

Details on a possible motive for the attack were not immediately known, but Zamfara state has grappled with kidnappings for ransom by armed gangs, who also target security forces.

Ismail Hassan, a resident, told Reuters that gunmen in their hundreds opened fire on miners on Thursday afternoon, and a firefight ensued, with over 20 people dead in the mining village of Gobirawa Chali in the Maru local government area of Zamfara state.

Another resident, Isah Ibrahim, said they had recovered 21 bodies following the attack and that several were injured.

Amnesty International said in a statement that  the gunmen went house-to-house in Gobirawa Chali, killing over 20 people.

Armed gangs of men have killed and kidnapped hundreds across northwest Nigeria over the past two years, typically operating from remote forests. The country’s thinly stretched armed forces have struggled to secure the large, remote regions.

Nigeria’s military is stretched by insecurity across the country, including an Islamist insurgency in the northeast, deadly farmer-herder clashes in the central belt and clashes with separatist movements in the south.

By Agencies