UN chief calls for ceasefire in Sudan's El Fasher

United Nations, Aug 30 (IANS) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an immediate ceasefire in and around the El Fasher area in Sudan's North Darfur, his spokesman said.

The UN chief is appalled by the relentless attacks by the Rapid Support Forces on North Darfur's capital, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement on Friday.

"El Fasher has been under a tightening siege for more than 500 days with hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in the area," he said.

The secretary-general is alarmed at the grave risks of serious violations of international humanitarian law as well as violations and abuses of international human rights law, including ethnically motivated ones, Xinhua news agency reported, quoting the spokesman.

Recent weeks have seen near-continuous shelling of the area and repeated deadly incursions into the Abu Shouk displacement camp, where famine conditions were identified in December 2024, he said.

Since August 11, the United Nations has documented the killing of at least 125 civilians in the El Fasher area, including summary executions, with the actual death toll likely higher, noted the spokesman.

Supplies are pre-positioned nearby. But efforts by the United Nations and its partners to move them into El Fasher continue to be hampered. There have been repeated attacks on humanitarian personnel and assets in North Darfur over recent months, said Dujarric.

The UN chief "insists that immediate steps must be taken to protect civilians and enable the safe, unhindered and sustained delivery of humanitarian assistance into the area, and to allow any civilians seeking to leave the area voluntarily to do so safely," said the spokesman.

Earlier on August 28, UN humanitarians had said that under siege for 500 days, El Fasher city has become the epicentre of suffering for children.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) had said the already dire situation in North Darfur continues to worsen at an alarming rate.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) had said that malnutrition, disease and violence are claiming young lives every single day in El Fasher, with an estimated 260,000 civilians, half of them children, trapped in the city, cut off from humanitarian assistance for more than 16 months.

UNICEF had said more than 10,000 children in El Fasher have been treated for severe acute malnutrition since January, nearly double the figure for last year. At least 63 people, mostly women and children, reportedly died of malnutrition in a single week.

--IANS

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