*Hundreds of thousands driven out from camps around El Fasher amid fighting*
*RSF kicked people out of their homes and robbed them as they fled to Tawila*
*Aid workers tell Avaaz situation is a ‘humanitarian disaster’*
Fri 25 APR -- Children are dying of thirst in desperate conditions after being forced to flee their homes, their families looted as they tried to reach safety amid brutal violence in North Darfur.
Recent weeks have seen the RSF carry out repeated waves of shelling on the city of El Fasher and launch major attacks on the nearby displacement camps of Zamzam and Abu Shouk. The UN has said hundreds of civilians, including at least 12 humanitarian workers, have been killed.
At least 280,000 people have fled to Tawila, a town to the west of El Fasher, since 3 April, bringing the total number displaced to the area since the start of the war to more than 770,000, local aid workers told Avaaz.
In video testimony filmed in Tawila, multiple people spoke of having to flee Zamzam and make the journey to Tawila on foot.
“They entered our homes with guns and kicked us out, took our money,” said one woman. “Now we don’t have mobile phones, nothing to eat or drink. Children are hungry and suffering from the heat. They are sick and tired and people are searching desperately to find medicine.”
Tawila sits around 40km (25 miles) west of Zamzam, but the route to walk between the two is reportedly around 60km (37 miles). The price of diesel has risen fivefold in the last three months to $56, leaving even those civilians with vehicles unable to use them.
Satellite imagery from the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, which captured only a snapshot of the route at one point in time, showed at least 1,100 people making the journey, the majority on foot or in animal-drawn carts. Daytime temperatures in Darfur currently peak at around 40C.
“It was a tough journey because they looted us in the street and took everything from us. Money and food and everything,” said another woman. “I fled with my sisters. One of them is old and also my aunt is with us and she is sick. We want peace and security and to end the siege of El Fasher.”
Zamzam was previously the largest displacement camp in Sudan and had an estimated population of at least half a million people. The RSF took control of the camp on 13 April and is believed to have carried out a wave of summary executions, sexual violence, shelling, and arson attacks.
Satellite images suggest that an area of the camp equivalent to at least 24 football pitches has been burned, while the UN has recorded the arrival of approximately 330,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in total in the surrounding regions.
Médecins Sans Frontières said last week that, following the attack, its team in Tawila had treated over 170 people with gunshot and blast injuries, and that 40% of them were women and girls. “We are treating children who were literally dying of thirst on their journeys,” it added.
A volunteer for another aid organisation in Tawila, Mohamed, told Avaaz that the situation in the town was a “humanitarian disaster”.
“The IDPs are under the sun. There is no shelter, no bathrooms and toilets, with difficult access to food and water for the IDPs,” he said. “There are many international organisations, but their intervention is very slow and emergency rooms with initiatives cannot cover this huge number of IDPs.”
In a statement released on Thursday, Foreign Secretary David Lammy described the reports of violence around El Fasher as “appalling”, adding that “some of the violence in Darfur has shown the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing and may amount to crimes against humanity”.
“The RSF must immediately cease attacks on civilians, and the SAF and allied Joint Forces must allow safe passage for civilians to reach safety,” he said.
FOOTAGE
(Note that the resolution of footage will usually be better if you download it to your computer instead of viewing it on Google Drive)
IMAGES
Our partners at the Ayin Network have put together a short film with more testimony from some of those displaced by the fighting and now living in Tawila. You can watch the film here. For raw footage from Tawila shot by Ayin, please email sudan@avaaz.org.
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. Get in touch on +44 7514 796 678 / sudan@avaaz.org
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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