At least 60 people have been killed in drone and artillery strikes by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) at a displacement shelter in El Fasher, western Sudan, according to a local activist group. The resistance committee for El Fasher reported that the RSF hit the Dar al-Arqam displacement centre, located on university grounds, describing the attack as a “massacre” and calling for international intervention.
The committee stated that the shelter was struck twice by drones and eight times by artillery shells on Friday and Saturday. “Children, women and the elderly were killed in cold blood, and many were completely burned,” the group said. “The situation has gone beyond disaster and genocide inside the city, and the world remains silent.” A separate medical group, the Sudan Doctors’ Network, gave a figure of 53 dead, including 14 children and 15 women.
The RSF has been fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces in a civil war since April 2023, placing El Fasher under siege for over 500 days. The city, home to 400,000 people, is the last state capital in Darfur not controlled by the RSF and has become a strategic front in the conflict. The UN has described the war as one of the worst humanitarian crises of the 21st century, with more than 150,000 killed and over 14 million displaced.
On Friday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk expressed horror at the RSF’s “endless and wanton disregard for civilian life” in El Fasher, urging all parties to protect civilians and respect international law. The attack comes amid ongoing violence that has forced nearly 25 million people into acute hunger, with no effective global effort to end the bloodshed.
