Latest news with #Darfur
The Guardian
12 hours ago
- Health
- The Guardian
Women and girls ‘not safe anywhere' as Darfur suffers surge in sexual violence
As Sudan's Darfur region has been overrun by militias, women are facing the constant threat of sexual violence, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has reported. The medical charity said in the South Darfur region alone its workers treated 659 sexual violence survivors between January and March this year, more than two-thirds of whom had been raped. 'Women and girls do not feel safe anywhere. They are attacked in their own homes, when fleeing violence, getting food, collecting firewood, working in the fields. They tell us they feel trapped,' said Claire San Filippo, MSF emergency coordinator, who called on the warring parties to hold their fighters to account. 'These attacks are heinous and cruel, often involving multiple perpetrators. This must stop. Sexual violence is not a natural or inevitable consequence of war, it can constitute a war crime, a form of torture, and a crime against humanity.' Several women who gave testimonies to MSF described raids where fighters killed all the boys and men in a place before raping women and girls. A 27-year-old nurse said she was raped last year by fighters who accused her of treating Sudanese army soldiers. 'I want protection now; I don't want to be raped again … I was too afraid to go to the hospital. My family told me, 'Don't tell anybody'. I don't have any more pain. But I have nightmares about it,' she said. MSF said that 56% of the sexual violence they documented was perpetrated by non-civilians. Women and girls having to walk long distances to gather food and water put them in particular danger, the report said. A third of women and girls were attacked while travelling to or working in fields. Since April 2023, Darfur has witnessed a surge in human rights abuses as it has been taken over by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary and allied militias as they fight for control against the government's Sudanese armed forces. The fighting has recently been concentrated around the city of El Fasher, where conditions have deteriorated rapidly for civilians. The RSF's seizure of the nearby Zamzam displacement camp led to further reports of increased sexual violence. The Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (Siha), a coalition of women's rights groups, said it has verified 14 cases of rape but had received reports of many more, during the Zamzam attack and in the weeks since, as well as dozens of reports of women disappearing or being abducted by RSF fighters. 'Sexual violence has become an everyday reality for women and girls in Darfur, along with the rise in sexually transmitted diseases,' said Siha's head, Hala al-Karib, who said the international community had abandoned women in Darfur. Karib said the violence had been escalating since before the current conflict because of the withdrawa of a UN and African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur that had provided some protection to local communities. 'The peacekeeping mission primarily contributed to the safety and security of women by patrolling roads and enabling them to access their farmlands, while also securing displaced camps,' said Karib. 'The level of neglect toward women in Darfur is staggering. This region is experiencing active genocidal acts, horrific war crimes, and famine due to a siege on livelihoods by all actors. There is no dedicated support for women survivors … this crisis is unfolding amid complete silence and utter neglect from international actors.'
Free Malaysia Today
16 hours ago
- Health
- Free Malaysia Today
RSF drone strike kills 6 in Sudan hospital as cholera rages
The United Nations says the conflict in Sudan has created the world's biggest hunger and displacement crises. (EPA Images pic) KHARTOUM : Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) bombarded the key southern city of El-Obeid yesterday, killing six people in a hospital, as doctors in the capital Khartoum fought to contain a cholera outbreak. World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said they were 'appalled' by the latest strike, adding: 'Attacks on health must stop. We call for protection of all health infrastructure and health personnel. The best medicine is peace.' An army source told AFP the drone strike on the Social Insurance Hospital, which also wounded 12, was part of a simultaneous strike on residential areas of the city with heavy artillery. The bombardment had also hit a second hospital in the city centre, the source added. A medical source at El-Obeid Hospital, the city's main facility, confirmed the toll. El-Obeid, a strategic city 400km southwest of Khartoum, was besieged by the RSF for nearly two years before the regular army broke the siege in February. It was one of a series of counter-offensives that later saw the army recapture Khartoum. The city, which the RSF has repeatedly bombarded, is a key staging post on the army's supply route to the west, where the besieged city of El-Fasher is the only state capital in the vast Darfur region still under its control. The RSF and the army have clashed repeatedly along the road between El-Obeid and El-Fasher in recent weeks. On Thursday, the paramilitaries said they retook the town of Al-Khoei, around 100km west of El-Obeid, after the army recaptured it earlier this month. The war between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted 13 million since it erupted in April 2023. The United Nations says the conflict has created the world's biggest hunger and displacement crises. In Khartoum, where a cholera outbreak has killed dozens this week, doctors struggled to treat patients with dwindling supplies as the disease rapidly spread. 'We are using all available means to limit its spread and treat infected patients,' Dr Hamad Adel, with Doctors Without Borders (MSF), told AFP from Bashair Hospital. Patients lay on rusted metal beds, receiving IV drips in a makeshift isolation centre fashioned out of a tent in the sweltering 40°C heat, AFPTV footage showed. In a dedicated section, children lay side by side, emaciated and exhausted in the midst of what aid groups warn is a public health disaster. Cholera, an acute diarrhoeal illness caused by ingesting contaminated water or food, is easily preventable and treatable with clean water, sanitation and medical care – all now in short supply in Khartoum. In other overwhelmed hospitals across the war-ravaged capital, medics have been forced to lay patients on floors in hallways and courtyards. The outbreak has been blamed on power outages caused by RSF drone attacks on the capital's power stations, which cut access to clean water for millions across the city this month. Cholera is endemic to Sudan, but outbreaks have become worse and more frequent since the war has decimated the country's already fragile health system. Up to 90% of hospitals in the conflict's main battlegrounds have at some point been forced shut, according to the doctors' union. The war has effectively split Sudan in two, with the army holding the centre, east and north, while the paramilitaries and their allies control nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south. The RSF has failed to seize El-Fasher, which would consolidate its hold on Darfur, but has continued to pound the city, with starving civilians trapped inside. The UN World Food Programme said Thursday its facility had been 'hit and damaged by RSF repeated shelling'. The US – which has sanctioned both Burhan and Daglo – has condemned the bombing. 'Safe, sustained humanitarian access is critical and violations that endanger civilians and relief efforts demand serious attention,' said senior Africa adviser Massad Boulos. Since losing Khartoum in March, the RSF has adopted a two-pronged strategy: long-range drone strikes on army-held cities accompanied by a counter-offensive in the south. On Thursday, the paramilitaries announced they had captured Dibeibat in South Kordofan state. Swathes of South Kordofan are controlled by a rebel group allied with the RSF.
Asharq Al-Awsat
a day ago
- Health
- Asharq Al-Awsat
RSF Drone Strike Kills Several in Sudan Hospital
Sudan's Rapid Support Forces bombarded El-Obeid on Friday, killing six people in a hospital in the key southern city, medical and army sources said. "The militia launched a drone strike on the Social Insurance Hospital, killing six and wounding 12, simultaneously attacking residential areas of the city with heavy artillery," an army source told AFP, adding that the bombardment had also hit a second hospital in the city center. A medical source at El-Obeid Hospital, the city's main facility, confirmed the toll, adding that the Social Insurance Hospital had been forced shut "due to damage" sustained in the drone strike. El-Obeid, a strategic city 400 kilometres (250 miles) southwest of Khartoum which is the capital of North Kordofan state, was besieged by the RSF for nearly two years before the regular army broke the siege in February. It was one of a series of counteroffensives that also saw the army recapture Khartoum, but El-Obeid has continued to come under RSF bombardment. The city is a key staging post on the army's supply route to the west, where the besieged city of El-Fasher is the only state capital in the vast Darfur region still under its control. The RSF and the army have clashed repeatedly along the road between El-Obeid and El-Fasher in recent weeks. On Thursday, the RSF said they retaken the town of Al-Khoei, around 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of El-Obeid, after the army recaptured it earlier this month. The war between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted 13 million since it erupted in April 2023. The United Nation says the conflict has created the world's biggest hunger and displacement crises. It has also effectively split Sudan in two, with the army holding the centre, east and north, while the RSF forces and their allies control nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south. Since losing Khartoum in March, the RSF has adopted a two-prong strategy: long-range drone strikes on army-held cities accompanied by a counteroffensive in the south. On Thursday, the RSF also announced they had recaptured Dibeibat, in South Kordofan state some 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of El-Obeid, another town that the army had retaken earlier this month. Swathes of South Kordofan are controlled by a rebel group allied with the RSF, Abdelaziz al-Hilu's faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North.
Al Jazeera
a day ago
- Health
- Al Jazeera
Six killed as RSF attack devastates Sudanese hospital in North Kordofan
At least six people have been killed in a suspected drone attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a hospital in southern Sudan, the latest civilian facility targeted in the brutal civil war, officials and rights advocates have said. The Emergency Lawyers, a rights group, blamed the RSF for the attack on Friday on the Obeid International Hospital, al-Dhaman, in Obeid, the capital city of North Kordofan province. At least 15 others were wounded in the attack, it said. In a statement on social media, the hospital said the attack resulted in severe damage to its main building. Services at the hospital, the main medical facility serving the region, were suspended until further notice, it said. A Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) source told the AFP news agency that the bombardment also hit a second hospital in the city centre. The city is a key staging post on the army's supply route to the west, where the besieged city of el-Fasher is the only state capital in the vast Darfur region still under the army-led government's control. El-Fasher has witnessed attritional fighting between SAF and RSF since May 2024, despite international warnings about the risks of violence in a city that serves as a key humanitarian hub for the five Darfur states. Adding to humanitarian woes on the ground, the Health Ministry in Khartoum state on Thursday reported 942 new cholera infections and 25 deaths the previous day, following 1,177 cases and 45 deaths the day before. Aid workers say the effort to control the cholera outbreak is deteriorating due to the near-total collapse of health services, with about 90 percent of hospitals in key warzones no longer operational. Since August 2024, Sudan has reported more than 65,000 suspected cholera cases and at least 1,700 deaths across 12 of its 18 states. Khartoum alone has seen 7,700 cases and 185 deaths, including more than 1,000 infections in children under five, as it contends with more than two years of fighting between the army and the RSF. 'Sudan urgently needs an increase in aid to help combat the cholera outbreak, hundreds of cases per day, which has even exceeded the more than 1000 cases per day,' Jean-Nicolas Armstrong Dangelser, Doctors Without Borders's, known by its French initials MSF, emergency coordinator in Sudan, told Al Jazeera. 'This is only the tip of the iceberg, because nobody has the full picture at the moment, unfortunately,' Dangelser said. Fighting in the al-Salha district, south of Ondurman, where there was a pocket of people sick with cholera, 'greatly contributed' to the spread of the disease, said Dangelser. The army said on May 19 it had seized control of the al-Salha district, considered the last stronghold of the RSF in Khartoum State. 'Now it's not just the returnees to Khartoum that are exacerbating the situation because of the devastated water system and the lack of healthcare, but it's also now spreading to Darfur, where people have been displaced by fighting,' Dangelser added. Violence and death follow Sudanese fleeing the war beyond their country's borders. On Friday, 11 Sudanese refugees and a Libyan driver were killed in a car crash in the desert in Libya, according to local authorities. Since fighting between the RSF and SAF broke out in April 2023, the UN has said 11 million people have been forced out of their homes, including 250,000 who have escaped into neighbouring Libya. Tens of thousands have been killed in the civil war.
Arab News
a day ago
- Health
- Arab News
RSF drone strike kills six in Sudan hospital: army source
KHARTOUM: Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces bombarded El-Obeid on Friday, killing six people in a hospital in the key southern city, medical and army sources said. 'The militia launched a drone strike on the Social Insurance Hospital, killing six and wounding 12, simultaneously attacking residential areas of the city with heavy artillery,' an army source told AFP, adding that the bombardment had also hit a second hospital in the city center. A medical source at El-Obeid Hospital, the city's main facility, confirmed the toll, adding that the Social Insurance Hospital had been forced shut 'due to damage' sustained in the drone strike. El-Obeid, a strategic city 400 kilometers (250 miles) southwest of Khartoum which is the capital of North Kordofan state, was besieged by the RSF for nearly two years before the regular army broke the siege in February. It was one of a series of counteroffensives that also saw the army recapture Khartoum, but El-Obeid has continued to come under RSF bombardment. The city is a key staging post on the army's supply route to the west, where the besieged city of El-Fasher is the only state capital in the vast Darfur region still under its control. The RSF and the army have clashed repeatedly along the road between El-Obeid and El-Fasher in recent weeks. On Thursday, the paramilitaries said they retaken the town of Al-Khoei, around 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of El-Obeid, after the army recaptured it earlier this month. The war between army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted 13 million since it erupted in April 2023. The United Nation says the conflict has created the world's biggest hunger and displacement crises. It has also effectively split Sudan in two, with the army holding the center, east and north, while the paramilitaries and their allies control nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south. Since losing Khartoum in March, the RSF has adopted a two-prong strategy: long-range drone strikes on army-held cities accompanied by a counteroffensive in the south. On Thursday, the paramilitaries also announced they had recaptured Dibeibat, in South Kordofan state some 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of El-Obeid, another town that the army had retaken earlier this month. Swathes of South Kordofan are controlled by a rebel group allied with the RSF, Abdelaziz Al-Hilu's faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North.
