PORT SUDAN: An artillery attack by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces killed 13 people in a mosque where displaced families were sheltering in the besieged city of El-Fasher.
Two eyewitnesses confirmed the strike on the mosque came from the north, where the RSF has overrun the Abu Shouk displacement camp.
One local man reported pulling 13 bodies from the rubble and burying them after the shelling on Wednesday afternoon.
A survivor stated that 70 families were inside the mosque’s walls after the RSF entered their homes.
The artillery shells killed 13 people, wounded 20 others, and destroyed part of the mosque.
The RSF’s current assault on El-Fasher is its fiercest since the war began with the army in April 2023.
El-Fasher is the last major city in Darfur still under army control, though the military’s territory has progressively shrunk.
The city has been besieged by the RSF since May of last year.
The paramilitary group has launched near-daily artillery and drone strikes and overrun displacement camps surrounding the city.
Between Tuesday and Wednesday, 20 people were killed in RSF strikes on El-Fasher Hospital.
Last month, at least 75 people were killed in a single drone strike on a mosque.
Across Sudan, the war has displaced millions and pushed nearly 25 million into acute hunger.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, though there is no official toll.
The RSF’s siege on El-Fasher has caused mass starvation in the city.
Families have for months survived on animal feed, which has grown scarce and now costs hundreds of dollars per sack.
If the city falls to the paramilitaries, the RSF will be in control of the entire Darfur region.
The army currently holds the country’s north, centre, and east. – AFP