CAIRO: Notorious paramilitaries said they had seized a headquarters in the center of the besieged provincial capital of North Darfur, the Sudanese military’s last stronghold in Darfur.
As fighting continued to rage on Monday in el-Fasher, a medical group said the Rapid Support Forces had killed dozens of civilians and destroyed health care infrastructure the previous day in the city, where hundreds of thousands of people have been trapped for more than a year.
Losing the 6th Division base is a major setback to the military and its allies. Fighting was continuing Monday morning around the airfield of the base, as well as on the western side of the city, according to Resistance Committees in el-Fasher, a grassroots group tracking the war. The group criticized the military for what it said lack of air support to troops trying to fend off the RSF attacks.
The military has yet to comment on the RSF capture of the base. However military officials confirmed that troops vacated the base on Sunday and retreated to another defense line under heavy shelling and artillery attacks from the paramilitaries.
Satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press showed the headquarters of the military’s 6th Division on Sunday with multiple buildings around the compound bearing damage to their roofs. One building in particular looked to have taken serious damage.
The layout of the headquarters as seen in the satellite images corresponded to details seen in footage released by the RSF, showing their fighters gathering around one bullet-scarred building, heralding their capture of the city.
The Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale University, HRL, also confirmed through satellite imagery that the paramilitaries advanced Sunday as far as the 6th Division headquarters, with “significant evidence of close-quarter battle in the area.”
In a statement late Sunday, the HRL reported that it has identified activities likely showing RSF taking prisoners in and around the airfield area, which was the main base of military operations.
The Sudan Doctor Network, a medical group tracking the war, described the RSF attack as a “heinous massacre” during which the paramilitaries killed dozens of people.
In a statement Monday, the group said RSF fighters rampaged through parts of el-Fasher, looting hospitals and other medical facilities and “destroying what remained of essential life-supporting and health care infrastructure” in the city.
The Darfur Network for Human Rights reported that the RSF detained over 1,000 civilians after their capture of the base in what it called “a systematic targeting of civilians, arbitrary detentions and potential acts amounting to war crimes.”
Among the detained was a local journalist, who was one of the few journalists remaining in the city, according to the Sudanese Journalists Union.
The group warned about potential “mass violations” in el-Fasher similar to what happened in another Darfur city in 2023 when RSF fighters ran riot there killing hundreds of people and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes.
Tom Fletcher, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, expressed “deep alarm” at reports of civilian casualties and forced displacement in el-Fasher.
“Hundreds of thousands of civilians are trapped and terrified — shelled, starving, and without access to food, health care or safety,” he said in a statement. He called for “safe, rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access” to help the population who remained in the city.
Before Sunday’s attack, there were 260,000 civilians, half of them children, trapped inside the city living in “desperate conditions,” according to the UN children’s agency.
Between 2,500 and 3,000 people were forced to flee their homes due to the latest fighting. They moved to other areas within the city, and could flee again toward other areas in North Darfur “depending on security conditions and movement restrictions,” the UN migration agency said.
The city is the military’s last stronghold in the Darfur region and has been at the epicenter of fighting for over a year between the Sudanese military and the RSF, which grew out of the notorious Janjaweed Arab militias that brutalized the Sudanese during the Darfur conflict in 2000s.
Sudan plunged into a war in April 2023 when simmering tension between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the northeastern African country.
The devastating war has killed over 40,000 people and created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis with part of the country plunged into famine. It has forced over 14 million people to flee their homes, with some crossing into neighboring countries.
It has been marked by gross atrocities including ethnically motivated killings and rape, according to the United Nations and rights groups. The International Criminal Court said it was investigating alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Sudanese paramilitaries advance into military’s last stronghold in Darfur
https://arab.news/gny9r
Sudanese paramilitaries advance into military’s last stronghold in Darfur
- Fighting was continuing Monday morning around the airfield of the base
- The devastating war has killed over 40,000 people and created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis
Palestinians wait at border between Gaza and Egypt as uncertainty clouds reopening of Rafah crossing
Palestinians wait at border between Gaza and Egypt as uncertainty clouds reopening of Rafah crossing
- At that pace, long waits are facing most of the roughly 20,000 sick and wounded people who Gaza’s Health Ministry has said need treatment abroad
- Reopening the crossing is considered key as the ceasefire agreement moves into a complicated second phase
- The bus with about 40 Palestinians that entered Gaza via Rafah on Tuesday arrived at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis early Wednesday morning, where their families welcomed them after spending the entire day waiting
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip: Palestinians gathered on both sides of Gaza’s border with Egypt on Tuesday hoping to pass through the Rafah crossing, after its reopening the previous day was marred by delays, interrogations and uncertainty over who would be allowed to cross.
On the Egyptian side were Palestinians who fled Gaza earlier in the Israel-Hamas war to seek medical treatment, according to Egypt’s state-run Al-Qahera News television. On the Gaza side, Palestinians in need of medical care that is unavailable in Gaza gathered at a hospital before ambulances moved toward Rafah, hoping for word that they would be allowed to cross the other way.
The office of the North Sinai governor confirmed Tuesday that an unknown number of patients and their companions had crossed from Gaza into Egypt.
The bus with about 40 Palestinians that entered Gaza via Rafah on Tuesday arrived at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis early Wednesday morning, where their families welcomed them after spending the entire day waiting.
Though hailed as a step forward for the fragile ceasefire struck in October, it took more than 10 hours for only about a dozen returnees and a small group of medical evacuees to cross in each direction on the first day Rafah reopened.
Three women who crossed into Gaza on Monday told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Israeli troops blindfolded and handcuffed them, then interrogated and threatened them, holding them for several hours before they were released.
The numbers permitted to cross on Monday fell well short of the 50 people that officials had said would be allowed each way and barely began to address the needs of tens of thousands of Palestinians who are hoping to be evacuated for treatment or to return home.
The import of humanitarian aid or goods through Rafah remains prohibited.
’Not a solution to the crisis’
Evacuation efforts on Tuesday morning converged around a Red Crescent hospital in Khan Younis, where a World Health Organization team arrived and a vehicle carrying patients and their relatives rolled in from another hospital. Then the group of WHO vehicles and Palestinian ambulances headed toward Rafah to await crossing.
As the sick, wounded and displaced waited to cross in both directions, health officials said the small number allowed to exit so far paled beside Gaza’s tremendous needs. Two years of fighting destroyed much of its medical infrastructure and left hospitals struggling to treat trauma injuries, amputations and chronic conditions like cancer.
In Gaza City, Shifa Hospital director Mohamed Abu Selmiya called the pace “crisis management, not a solution to the crisis,” imploring Israel to permit the importing of medical supplies and equipment. He wrote on Facebook: “Denying the evacuation of patients and preventing the entry of medicines is a death sentence for them.”
UN and WHO officials said the trickle of patients allowed out and restrictions on bringing in desperately needed supplies are prolonging a disastrous situation in Gaza.
“Rafah must function as a real humanitarian corridor so we can have a surge in aid deliveries,” said Tom Fletcher, the UN’s top relief official.
Palestinian Red Crescent spokesperson Raed Al-Nims told AP that only 16 patients with chronic conditions or war wounds, accompanied by 40 relatives, were brought from Khan Younis to the Gaza side of Rafah on Tuesday — less than the 45 patients and wounded the Red Crescent was told would be allowed.
After days of anticipation over the reopening, hope lingered that it might mark a meaningful first step. In Khan Younis, Iman Rashwan waited for hours until her mother and sister returned from Egypt, hoping others would soon see their loved ones again.
Waiting on both sides
Officials say the number of crossings could gradually increase if the system works, with Israel and Egypt vetting those allowed in and out. But security concerns and bureaucratic snags quickly tempered expectations raised by officials who for weeks had cast reopening as a major step in the ceasefire deal.
There were delays on Monday over disagreements about luggage allowances. Returnees were carrying more than anticipated with them, requiring additional negotiations, a person familiar with the situation told the AP, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the diplomatic matter.
“They didn’t let us cross with anything,” Rotana Al-Regeb said as she returned around midnight Monday to Khan Younis. “They emptied everything before letting us through. We were only allowed to take the clothes on our backs and one bag per person.”
The initial number of Palestinians allowed to cross is mostly symbolic. Israeli and Egyptian officials have said that 50 medical evacuees would depart — along with two caregiver escorts — and 50 Palestinians who left during the war would return.
At that pace, long waits are facing most of the roughly 20,000 sick and wounded people who Gaza’s Health Ministry has said need treatment abroad. About 150 hospitals across Egypt are ready to receive patients, authorities said.
Who and what would be allowed through Rafah was a central concern for both Israel and Egypt.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that anyone who wants to leave will eventually be permitted to do so, but Egypt has repeatedly said the Rafah crossing must open in both directions, fearing Israel could use it to push Palestinians out of Gaza.
Reopening the crossing is considered key as the ceasefire agreement moves into a complicated second phase. That calls for installing a new Palestinian committee to govern Gaza, deploying an international security force, disarming Hamas and taking steps to begin rebuilding.
In a meeting Tuesday with US special envoy Steve Witkoff in Jerusalem, Netayanhu repeated Israel’s “uncompromising demand” that Hamas be disarmed before any reconstruction begins, the prime minister’s office said.
A 19-year-old killed in southern Gaza
Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said Ahmed Abdel-Al, 19, was shot and killed by Israeli troops on Tuesday morning in a part of the southern Gaza City, some distance away from the area under the Israeli military’s control.
Israel’s military said it was not immediately aware of any shootings in the area.
Abdel-Al was the latest of the 529 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since the Oct. 10 start of the ceasefire, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. They are among more than 71,800 Palestinians killed since the start of the war, according to the ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians.
The ministry, part of Gaza’s Hamas-led government, keeps detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.
