Sudan: MSF denounces mass atrocities and fears many people remain in grave danger in and around El Fasher
MSF urges armed groups to protect civilians and allow safe passage.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) denounces the horrendous mass atrocities and killings, both indiscriminate and ethnically-targeted, that have culminated this week in and around El Fasher. We reiterate our fear that large numbers of people remain in grave danger and are being prevented by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its allies from reaching safer areas, such as Tawila where we work.
Our teams in Tawila prepared to cope with a mass influx of displaced and injured people when El Fasher, located 60 kilometres away, was seized by the RSF on Oct. 26. This comes after 17 months of a suffocating siege and attacks.
In recent months, waves of people fled to Tawila after each major escalation of violence in El Fasher, which, according to the UN, was still home to 260,000 people as of late August. However, over the past five days, just over five thousand people have managed to make their way to Tawila according to aid agencies working in the area. They describe massacres and spoke of people who remain stranded and subjected to torture, kidnappings for ransom, sexual violence and summary executions in El Fasher, neighbouring towns and along escape routes.
“The arrival numbers don’t add up, while accounts of large-scale atrocities are mounting,” Michel Olivier Lacharité, MSF head of emergencies. “Where are all the missing people who have already survived months of famine and violence in El Fasher?”
“Based on what patients tells us, the most likely, albeit frightening, answer is that they are being killed, blocked and hunted down when trying to flee. We urgently call on the RSF and its allied armed groups to spare civilians and allow them to reach safety. We also urge all diplomatic stakeholders, including the ‘Quad’ comprising the U.S., Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt – to use their leverage to stop the bloodbath.”
Between Oct. 26 and 28, new arrivals from El Fasher, mostly women, children and older adults with catastrophic levels of malnutrition, were brought to Tawila by truck. Others, including gunshot victims, travelled on foot, hiding during daytime and trekking at night to avoid armed men on the main roads.
Every single one the 70 children under five years old who arrived on Oct. 27were acutely malnourished, with 57 per cent of them suffering from severe acute malnutrition. The following day, our team screened 120 men arriving from El Fasher, with 20 per cent suffering from severe acute malnutrition. These shocking indicators point to the sheer agony endured by people in El Fasher and surrounding camps. The area was declared as undergoing famine more than a year ago and has since then been increasingly cut off from food and lifesaving supplies, with people relying on animal feed to survive.
Several eyewitnesses told MSF of a group of 500 civilians, as well as soldiers from the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Joint Forces, who attempted to flee on Oct. 26, only for most to be killed or captured by the RSF and its allies. Survivors report individuals being separated by gender, age or perceived ethnic identity. Many remaining are said to be held for ransom, with sums ranging from five million to 30 million Sudanese pounds (more than $11,500 to almost $70,000 Canadian). One survivor says he paid 24 million Sudanese pounds (more than $55,00 Canadian) to his captors to save his life and escape. Another reported extremely gruesome scenes of fighters crushing several prisoners with their vehicles.
“Between Oct. 26 and 29, we’ve received 396 injured people and treated over 700 new arrivals from El Fasher in a dedicated hospital emergency room,” says Livia Tampellini, physician and MSF deputy head of emergencies. “The main injuries of patients currently being treated at the hospital are gunshot wounds, fractures and other injuries linked to beatings and torture. Some suffer from infected wounds or complications of surgical procedures already performed in El Fasher amid desperate conditions with virtually no access to medical supplies and drugs.”
MSF set up a health post at the entrance to Tawila, whilst scaling up the provision of emergency care, surgical care and other medical services at the hospital.
Most of our MSF Sudanese staff in Tawila have relatives who were killed in El Fasher over the week. Displaced people already present in the town go to meet new arrivals in the hope of recognizing a familiar face among the starving and traumatized people or seeking news of their missing relatives.
“Given the state of people who escaped and made it barely alive to Tawila, it’s clear that they are in urgent need of medical and nutritional care, psychosocial assistance, shelter, water and humanitarian assistance in general,” says Tampellini.
There is no more time to waste to help other survivors, they need to be allowed to move to safer areas and get lifesaving assistance.
