Since October 26, when the Rapid Support Forces (RFS) took control of the city of El Fasher in North Darfur, hundreds of people have been killed indiscriminately, and thousands of civilians have been displaced. We have taken action in the city of Tawila to provide medical care and protection to those fleeing.
Violence, mass killings, rape, devastation of villages: all this is happening right now in the city of El Fasher, North Darfur. Just a few days after the town was conquered by the RSF (Rapid Support Forces), hundreds of civilians were reported to have been killed, and thousands are still missing. Many have been displaced, with families forced to flee on foot in search of safety, risking their lives along the way.
Illegal attacks on people fleeing are causing concern, and there are fears for the fate of the tens of thousands of civilians who, until last week, had remained in the city. Many people are currently arriving in places such as Tawila, Al Malha, Melit, and Kosti with no possessions and in desperate need of humanitarian aid.
“We are trying to intervene to help people fleeing and arriving here in Tawila”, says Fabrizio Cavallazzi, an INTERSOS humanitarian worker in Darfur. “The number of arrivals is uncertain because at the moment, entry and exit from the city have been closed. Even the state authorities are unable to get close due to the ongoing atrocities and raids being carried out by RFS along the escape route from the city of El Fasher. The initial figures we have available indicate that around 1,500 families, or roughly 7,000 people, have managed to reach Tawila.”
The takeover of El Fasher is the culmination of an 18-month siege and relentless attacks by warring factions, taking place amid the dramatic crisis in Sudan following the outbreak of internal conflict in April 2023. For more than two years, hunger and the lack of necessities have taken root everywhere, especially in the camps for displaced persons in and around the city.
INTERSOS, which has been present in the region since the beginning of the crisis, is taking action to help these people who have suffered violence, providing them with medical care and protection, distributing necessities, and trying to set up a mobile clinic at the first point of arrival for those who manage to escape.