PORT SUDAN: Paramilitary shelling of a famine-hit displacement camp near North Darfur’s besieged capital of El-Fasher killed six people on Wednesday, activists in Sudan said.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), locked in a brutal conflict with the regular army since April 2023, pressed an attack on the Abu Shouk camp, said the local resistance committee, one of hundreds of volunteer groups coordinating aid across Sudan.
Wednesday’s shelling came a day after the group reported 80 casualties from artillery fire on Tuesday, although it could not confirm the exact numbers of dead and wounded.
The RSF assault on the camp began on Sunday, the second day of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan in the northeast African country.
Civilians had been shopping for Ramadan supplies when shells hit the camp and a crowded market nearby, killing six people, rescuers said.
The attacks come as the RSF keeps up its months-long siege of El-Fasher, the last state capital in the vast western region of Darfur still under army control.
Fighting around the city has seen the army and allied forces repel repeated paramilitary attacks as civilians bear the brunt of relentless shelling.
The RSF holds nearly all of Darfur while the army controls the country’s east and north and has this year made gains in the capital Khartoum and central Sudan.
The war has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million, making it the “biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded,” according to the International Rescue Committee.
In North Darfur alone, nearly 1.7 million people are displaced.
Around two million people face extreme food insecurity, and 320,000 are already suffering famine conditions, according to UN estimates.
Famine has hit three displacement camps around El-Fasher — Zamzam, Abu Shouk and Al-Salam — and is expected to spread to five more areas, including El-Fasher itself, by May.
Paramilitary shelling of Sudan camp kills 6: activists
https://arab.news/87mks
Paramilitary shelling of Sudan camp kills 6: activists
- Wednesday’s shelling came a day after the group reported 80 casualties from artillery fire on Tuesday
- The RSF assault on the camp began on Sunday, the second day of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan in the northeast African country
Syrian government foils Daesh plot to attack churches and New Year celebrations
- Bomber kills soldier in Aleppo, detonates explosives injuring 2 others
ALEPPO, DAMASCUS: The Syrian Interior Ministry announced on Thursday that it had thwarted a Daesh plot to carry out suicide attacks targeting New Year celebrations and churches, particularly in Aleppo.
The ministry said in a statement that, as part of ongoing counterterrorism efforts and careful monitoring of Daesh cells in cooperation with partner agencies, it had received intelligence indicating plans for suicide attacks targeting New Year celebrations in several provinces, particularly Aleppo, with a focus on churches and civilian gathering areas.
The ministry added that it took preemptive measures, including reinforcing security around churches, deploying mobile and fixed patrols, and setting up checkpoints across the city.
During operations at a checkpoint in Aleppo’s Bab Al-Faraj district, security forces intercepted a suspected Daesh member who opened fire. One internal security soldier was killed, and the attacker detonated explosives, injuring two others.
Daesh recently increased its attacks in Syria, and was blamed for an attack last month in Palmyra that killed three Americans.
On Dec. 13, two US soldiers and an American civilian were killed in an attack Washington blamed on a lone Daesh gunman in Palmyra.
In retaliation, American forces struck scores of Daesh targets in Syria.
Syrian authorities have also carried out several operations against Daesh since then, saying on Dec. 25 they had killed a senior leader of the group.
