PORT SUDAN: New satellite imagery suggests that mass killings are likely continuing in and around the Sudanese city of El-Fasher, Yale researchers said, days after it fell to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
At war with the regular army since April 2023, the RSF seized El-Fasher on Sunday, pushing the army out its last stronghold in the western Darfur region after a grinding 18-month siege.
Since the city’s fall, reports have emerged of summary executions, sexual violence, attacks on aid workers, looting and abductions, while communications remain largely cut off.
A report by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab on Friday said fresh images gave them reason to believe much of the population may be “dead, captured, or in hiding.”
The lab identified at least 31 clusters of objects consistent with human bodies between Monday and Friday, across neighborhoods, university grounds and military sites.
“Indicators that mass killing is continuing are clearly visible,” the lab said.
Survivors from El-Fasher who reached the nearby town of Tawila have told AFP of mass killings, children shot before their parents, and civilians beaten and robbed as they fled.
Hayat, a mother of five who fled El-Fasher, said that “young men traveling with us were stopped” along the way by paramilitaries and “we don’t know what happened to them.”
The UN said more than 65,000 people have fled El-Fasher but tens of thousands remain trapped.
Around 260,000 people were in the city before the RSF’s final assault.
The RSF claimed to have arrested several fighters accused of abuses on Thursday, but UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher questioned the RSF’s commitment to investigate violations.
Both the RSF and the army have faced war crimes accusations over the course of the conflict.
El-Fasher’s capture gives the RSF full control over all five state capitals in Darfur, effectively splitting Sudan along an east-west axis, with the army controlling the north, east and center.
New satellite images suggest mass killings persist in Sudan’s El-Fasher
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New satellite images suggest mass killings persist in Sudan’s El-Fasher
- New satellite imagery suggests that mass killings are likely continuing in and around the Sudanese city of El-Fasher
Israel spied on US forces at Gaza aid base: Sources
- US commander summoned Israeli counterpart to say: ‘Recording has to stop here’
- Staff, visitors from other partner countries have also raised concerns about Israeli surveillance
LONDON: Israel conducted widespread surveillance of US forces involved in an aid mechanism for Gaza, The Guardian reported.
The Civil-Military Coordination Center in southern Israel was launched in October as a joint body to monitor the ceasefire and oversee the entry of aid into the war-torn Palestinian enclave.
But sources with knowledge of internal disputes told The Guardian that open and covert recordings of meetings at the CMCC had prompted disputes between the two partners.
Lt. Gen. Patrick Frank, the US commander of the center, summoned his Israeli counterpart to explain that “recording has to stop here.”
Other countries, including the UK and UAE, are also involved in the CMCC. Staff and visitors from partner countries have likewise raised concerns about Israeli surveillance activities at the center.
When the CMCC began operations, media in the US and Israel reported that the latter was handing over authority to American forces.
Yet Israel still retains effective control over what enters the territory despite Washington’s considerable leverage, according to one US official.
US forces who arrived at the CMCC, including logistics experts, were keen to increase the flow of aid into Gaza.
But they soon discovered that Israel had implemented a wide range of controls on purported “dual-use” goods, creating a larger impediment than any engineering challenge relating to aid delivery. These included basic goods such as tent poles and chemicals used for water purification.
Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel has said he was briefed at the center on “one of the dual-use barriers that was being lifted as a result of the conversations (there).”
It came in response to growing awareness that Israeli restrictions on deliveries stood as the biggest barrier to the entry of aid into Gaza.
Israeli authorities had also restricted basic items such as pencils and paper — required by Palestinian students for school — without explanation.
There is widespread hesitancy among aid organizations and diplomats over joining the CMCC’s efforts, despite being invited to do so.
The center lacks any Palestinian representation, and even US efforts to schedule video calls with Palestinian officials were vetoed by Israeli staff there.
