PORT SUDAN, Sudan: Sudanese police on Wednesday forcibly evicted hundreds of civilians who had been sheltering at a school in the eastern state of Gedaref, eyewitnesses said, as the army and paramilitaries battled in the capital.
A resident, Amal Hussein, said she saw “police cars surround” the school and heard people scream.
“Police came and ordered us to leave the school, based on a decision from the governor, and fired tear gas at us,” Hussein Gomaa, who had been displaced from Khartoum, told AFP.
“We are 770 people who had fled the war in Khartoum and were sheltering in this school,” Gomaa said after fleeing the makeshift displacement camp, where he said hundreds of people “had been receiving aid.”
“We don’t understand why we were driven out,” he said. “Now we’re out in the open with women and children, and we don’t know where to go.”
Gedaref currently hosts 273,000 people who have been uprooted in the conflict between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
According to the United Nations, thousands are being housed in makeshift camps such as schools where food, clean water and health care are in short supply.
Barely two hours after they were forced out, Suleiman Mohammed, who had also been taking shelter at the school, said they were again “evacuated from the dormitories” of Gedaref University’s medical school.
“Police said the decision was issued by the governor,” he added.
Since April, forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan — Sudan’s de facto head of state — have been at war with the RSF commanded by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
More than 10,000 people have been killed, according to a conservative estimate from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project.
After the warring sides failed to agree on a cease-fire this week, the fighting continued Wednesday, with a committee of volunteers reporting “intensified clashes” in a densely populated neighborhood of northern Khartoum.
Out of 4.6 million people internally displaced within Sudan, more than three million people have fled the violence in the capital, according to UN figures.
The country is facing an “unimaginable humanitarian crisis,” the UN refugee agency said Tuesday, with most hospitals shuttered and millions in severe need of aid as the violence continues unabated.
In the vast western region of Darfur, where some of the worst fighting has taken place, the RSF has claimed control of all but one major city.
Their advance amid a communications blackout has triggered renewed fears of ethnically motivated mass killings.
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Hundreds of displaced Sudanese evicted as war rages
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Hundreds of displaced Sudanese evicted as war rages
- Gedaref currently hosts 273,000 people who have been uprooted in the conflict between the Sudanese army and paramilitary RSF
- According to the United Nations, thousands are being housed in makeshift camps
Sudan paramilitary used mass graves to conceal war crimes: ICC deputy prosecutor
UNITED NATIONS: Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces carried out mass killings in Darfur and attempted to conceal them with mass graves, the International Criminal Court’s deputy prosecutor said on Monday.
In a briefing to the UN Security Council, Nazhat Shameem Khan said it was the “assessment of the office of the prosecutor that war crimes and crimes against humanity” had been committed in the RSF’s takeover of the city of El-Fasher in October.
“Our work has been indicative of mass killing events and attempts to conceal crimes through the establishment of mass graves,” Khan said in a video address, citing audio and video evidence as well as satellite imagery.
Since April 2023, a civil war between the Sudanese army and the RSF has killed tens of thousands, displaced 11 million and created the world’s largest displacement and hunger crisis.
Reports of mass killings, sexual violence, abductions and looting emerged in the wake of the RSF’s sweep of El-Fasher, which was the army’s last holdout position in the Darfur region.
Both warring sides have been accused of atrocities throughout the war.
Footage reviewed by the ICC, Khan said, showed RSF fighters detaining, abusing and executing civilians in El-Fasher, then celebrating the killings and “desecrating corpses.”
According to Khan, the material matched testimony gathered from affected communities, while submissions from civil society groups and other partners had further corroborated the evidence.
The atrocities in El-Fasher, she added, mirror those documented in the West Darfur capital of El-Geneina in 2023, where UN experts determined the RSF killed between 10,000 and 15,000 people, mostly from the Massalit tribe.
She said a picture was emerging of “appalling organized, widespread mass criminality.”
“It will continue until this conflict and the sense of impunity that fuels it are stopped,” she added.
Khan also issued a renewed call for Sudanese authorities to “work with us seriously” to ensure the surrender of all individuals subject to outstanding warrants, including former longtime president Omar Al-Bashir, former ruling party chairman Ahmed Haroun and ex-defense minister Abdul Raheem Mohammed Hussein.
She said Haroun’s arrest in particular should be “given priority.”
Haroun faces 20 counts of crimes against humanity and 22 war-crimes charges for his role in recruiting the Janjaweed militia, which carried out ethnic massacres in Darfur in the 2000s and later became the RSF.
He escaped prison in 2023 and has since reappeared rallying support for the Sudanese army.
Khan spoke to the UN Security Council via video link after being denied a visa to attend in New York due to sanctions in place against her by the United States.
In a briefing to the UN Security Council, Nazhat Shameem Khan said it was the “assessment of the office of the prosecutor that war crimes and crimes against humanity” had been committed in the RSF’s takeover of the city of El-Fasher in October.
“Our work has been indicative of mass killing events and attempts to conceal crimes through the establishment of mass graves,” Khan said in a video address, citing audio and video evidence as well as satellite imagery.
Since April 2023, a civil war between the Sudanese army and the RSF has killed tens of thousands, displaced 11 million and created the world’s largest displacement and hunger crisis.
Reports of mass killings, sexual violence, abductions and looting emerged in the wake of the RSF’s sweep of El-Fasher, which was the army’s last holdout position in the Darfur region.
Both warring sides have been accused of atrocities throughout the war.
Footage reviewed by the ICC, Khan said, showed RSF fighters detaining, abusing and executing civilians in El-Fasher, then celebrating the killings and “desecrating corpses.”
According to Khan, the material matched testimony gathered from affected communities, while submissions from civil society groups and other partners had further corroborated the evidence.
The atrocities in El-Fasher, she added, mirror those documented in the West Darfur capital of El-Geneina in 2023, where UN experts determined the RSF killed between 10,000 and 15,000 people, mostly from the Massalit tribe.
She said a picture was emerging of “appalling organized, widespread mass criminality.”
“It will continue until this conflict and the sense of impunity that fuels it are stopped,” she added.
Khan also issued a renewed call for Sudanese authorities to “work with us seriously” to ensure the surrender of all individuals subject to outstanding warrants, including former longtime president Omar Al-Bashir, former ruling party chairman Ahmed Haroun and ex-defense minister Abdul Raheem Mohammed Hussein.
She said Haroun’s arrest in particular should be “given priority.”
Haroun faces 20 counts of crimes against humanity and 22 war-crimes charges for his role in recruiting the Janjaweed militia, which carried out ethnic massacres in Darfur in the 2000s and later became the RSF.
He escaped prison in 2023 and has since reappeared rallying support for the Sudanese army.
Khan spoke to the UN Security Council via video link after being denied a visa to attend in New York due to sanctions in place against her by the United States.
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