UN chief ‘gravely alarmed’ by reports of RSF assault on Sudan’s el-Fasher

Antonio Guterres has called on the RSF commander to ‘act responsibly and immediately order a halt’ to its attacks.

The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is “gravely alarmed” by reports of a full-scale assault on North Darfur’s city of el-Fasher in Sudan, says a UN spokesperson.

Guterres on Saturday called on the leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to immediately halt the attack, warning that any further escalation threatens to spread the conflict along intercommunal lines throughout the country’s Darfur region, the spokesperson said in a statement.

“He calls on Lt. General Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemedti’ Dagalo to act responsibly and immediately order a halt to the RSF attack,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement on Saturday, referring to the RSF commander.

“It is unconscionable that the warring parties have repeatedly ignored calls for a cessation of hostilities.”

Sudan plunged into conflict in April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital Khartoum and spread to other regions, including Darfur.

The UN has said that more than 14,000 people have been killed and 33,000 injured as the war triggered the world’s largest displacement crisis. UN officials have warned the worsening violence around el-Fasher threatens to unleash more intercommunal strife.

Darfur has seen some of the war’s worst atrocities, and the RSF has besieged el-Fasher since May – but fighting has escalated in the past week.

United States National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Saturday that the conflict will be on the agenda when US President Joe Biden meets United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Monday.

Sudan and the UAE have clashed at the UN Security Council (UNSC) over accusations by the army-aligned Sudanese government that the UAE is arming and supporting the RSF.

“Hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in el-Fasher are now at risk of the consequences of mass violence,” Martha Pobee, the UN’s assistant secretary-general for Africa, told the UNSC on Wednesday.

“As fighting engulfs the city, it has further exposed an extremely vulnerable population, including internally displaced persons living in large camps near el-Fasher. This violence has also affected healthcare facilities.”

In June, the UNSC adopted a resolution calling for “an immediate halt to the fighting and for de-escalation in and around el-Fasher”.

In January, the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, said there are grounds to believe both the warring sides may be committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide in Darfur.

Earlier this month, the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan called for an “independent and impartial force” in Sudan and the widening of an arms embargo to protect civilians in the escalating conflict.

A 19-page report by the mission based on 182 interviews with survivors, their family members and witnesses conducted between January and August 2024 said both the Sudanese army and the RSF were responsible for attacks on civilians “through rape and other forms of sexual violence, arbitrary arrest and detention, as well as torture and ill-treatment”.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies