War in Sudan spreads to many cities

Fighting rocked several vulnerable cities in western Sudan on Wednesday in an expansion of the country’s almost two-month-old war as the number of people who have fled their homes rose above two million, Reuters news agency reported.

The war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has caused a humanitarian crisis in Khartoum, as well as other cities, including El Obeid, Nyala, El Fashir, and El Geneina, where more than 1,100 people have been killed.

Speaking to Al-Hadath TV from El Geneina as gun and artillery fire could be heard, Khamis Abbakar, the governor of West Darfur state, called for international intervention in what he described as a “genocide”.

“Civilians are being killed randomly and in large numbers,” he said. While the RSF and allied militias had originally targeted areas of El Geneina where members of the Masalit tribe lived, these attacks had now spread to the entire city, he said.

“We haven’t seen the army leave its base to defend people,” he added.

The Darfur region of Sudan has seen periods of conflict since the early 2000s when millions were displaced and 300,000 killed by attacks from Arab militias known as the Janjaweed. The RSF evolved out of those groups, becoming a legalised governmental force in 2017.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres “is highly worried about the increasing ethnic dimension of the violence, as well as by reports of sexual violence”, a spokesperson said on Tuesday. His special representative to Sudan, Volker Perthes, blamed the fighting in West Darfur on “Arab militias and some armed men in RSF’s uniform”.

In a statement, the RSF called the fighting in El Geneina a tribal conflict, blaming the country’s former regime for fanning the flames. It said it had been making efforts to get aid into the city.