18 SEPT -- Following Tuesday's briefing on the situation in El Fasher, Avaaz is releasing the full recording featuring accounts of the event and some select quotes from the contributors.
You will also find the Arabic audio and an English transcript of a voice note from Fatima, who is currently in El Fasher but was unable to join the briefing due to technical difficulties. During the recording, the sound of shelling is audible in the background. We are also sharing an audio message from Mohammed, who is inside the city.
Conditions for people in El Fasher are extremely dire and continue to deteriorate with intense shellin and multiple reports of civilian massacres ongoing. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are very close to taking the city with around 260,000 civilians trapped inside. When the city falls, Avaaz is concerned that what follows could be a massacre like that seen after the RSF took the nearby Zamzam displacement camp in April.
As ever, if we can be of any help to your coverage of the battle for El Fasher or the wider conflict, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Fatima, an artist and lecturer who works with displaced communities in North Darfur, said civilians in El Fasher were enduring “deliberate shelling, rapid deaths, slow deaths, injuries, starvation, disease, intimidation, and other inhumane practices” on a daily basis.
“Young people risk traveling long distances to bring supplies, enduring extreme suffering. Some are killed, some are taken to unknown areas and their families do not know where they are, and some are beaten, tortured, or robbed of the goods or money they carry. Even when supplies arrive, they are often very small after all these hardships or sometimes do not arrive at all.
“This is a real catastrophe. People have become like ghosts, and even their human features are disappearing. We call on all civil society organisations, international organisations, and humanitarian agencies, wherever they may be, to act as quickly as possible to save the people of El Fasher from this deliberate and systematic starvation.”
Mohammad Duda, spokesperson of Zamzam IDP camp said the people in El Fasher are “being forced to hide in buried shipping containers as makeshift shelters”.
“For more than a year and a half, the RSF have besieged the city of El Fasher, blocking food and humanitarian aid from reaching us. This siege has completely shut down the markets and hospitals. As a result, thousands of children and women are dying of starvation.
Every day, RSF launches deliberate artillery shelling and drone strikes targeting residential areas, gatherings, and displacement shelters. People are being forced to hide in buried shipping containers as makeshift shelters.
The RSF has attacked Abu Shouk camp more than three times and continues its assaults. In the most recent attack, more than 15 neighborhoods were completely burned, killing large numbers of civilians
We have not been able to properly collect or bury the dead people, nor accurately count the victims. Preliminary reports from survivors who managed to flee indicate that over 200 bodies of women and children remain in homes and on the streets and we urgently appeal to the international community to intervene immediately and save the people of El Fasher from this catastrophic humanitarian crisis."
Dr Ibrahim Osman, a medical doctor and the Darfur coordinator for the Sudanese American Physicians Association (SAPA), told the briefing that people suffering injuries in El Fasher were having to use pieces of clothing and bed sheets to cover their wounds because of a lack of medical supplies.
He said that, even after reaching nearby displacement camps, many face a shortage of food as well as the threat of diseases like cholera, dengue fever, and malaria.
Mathilde Simon, a humanitarian advisor with Médecins Sans Frontières, which in July published a major report on the atrocities being committed in and around El Fasher, said people in the city were “facing an impossible choice”.
“Either to remain trapped, starving and out of reach of humanitarian aid and exposed to continuous attacks and further mass violence, or to flee with a high risk of deadly violence on the way,“ she said.
“In light of the… recent ethnic violence and massacres perpetrated in Zamzam camp, MSF fears that such a scenario will be repeated in El Fasher.”
You can watch the full briefing, read Fatima’s testimony, and listen to Duda’s and Fatima’s voice notes at the link below.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1uph6dtWi5NGu-XA9OYt_owz_LbzGUULx?usp=drive_link
The weekly dispatch features the latest developments, first-hand testimony, footage, photos, stats and analysis on Sudan. We can connect you with voices from the ground, experts and survivors of the war. We are available at +44 7514 796 678 / sudan@avaaz.org
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The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is building an earthen wall around El Fasher to create a “kill box” and prevent civilians fleeing the besieged city, satellite imagery suggests.
People caught trying to smuggle food into the besieged city of El Fasher are being “executed on sight” by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to one civilian.
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