PORT SUDAN: The International Criminal Court warned on Monday that atrocities committed in Sudan’s El-Fasher could amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes, as the UN said that thousands had fled a neighbouring region where paramilitaries have turned their focus.
According to United Nations figures, more than 36,000 civilians have fled towns and villages in the Kordofan region between October 26 and last Friday, while the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces warned it was amassing along a new front line.
Kordofan is a strategic area linking the vast western region of Darfur with Khartoum, the capital.
The widening of the war comes just over a week after the RSF took control of El-Fasher — the army’s last stronghold in Darfur — where reports of mass killings, sexual violence, looting and abductions have emerged in the aftermath.
The RSF has set up a rival administration in Darfur to the pro-army government operating out of the Red Sea city of Port Sudan.
Residents on Monday reported a major surge in both RSF and army forces across towns and villages in North Kordofan state.
The two sides are vying for El-Obeid, the North Kordofan state capital and a key logistics and command hub that links Darfur to Khartoum.
Suleiman Babiker, who lives in Um Smeima, west of El-Obeid, told AFP that following the paramilitary capture of El-Fasher, “the number of RSF vehicles increased”.
“We stopped going to our farms, afraid of clashes,” he told AFP.
Another resident, requesting anonymity for fear of reprisal, also said “there has been a big increase in army vehicles and weapons west and south of El-Obeid” over the past two weeks.
The RSF claimed control of Bara, a city north of El-Obeid last week. “Today, all our forces have converged on the Bara front here,” an RSF member said in a video shared by the RSF on its official Telegram page late on Sunday, “advising civilians to steer clear of military sites”.
Awad Ali, who lives in Al-Hamadi on the road linking West and North Kordofan, said he has seen “RSF vehicles passing every day from the areas of West Kordofan toward El-Obeid since early October”.
Kordofan is a resource-rich region divided administratively into North, South and West Kordofan.
While the fighting shifts, famine is spreading with it.
The Rome-based Integrated Food Security Phase Classification had previously declared famine in parts of South Kordofan as well as three displacement camps around El-Fasher.
On Monday it declared that famine had reached two more areas of the country, including El-Fasher, and the besieged city of Kadugli in South Kordofan state.
It added that twenty more areas across Darfur and Kordofan were at risk of famine.
The ICC prosecutor’s office voiced on Monday “profound alarm and deepest concern” over reports of mass killings, rapes and other crimes in El-Fasher, warning that such acts “may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity”.
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