Fears of a new ethnic massacre have soared in recent days in Sudan’s Darfur region, where genocidal violence killed as many as 300,000 people two decades ago, as a threat of attack looms over a embattled city already struggling with famine had.
The battle for control of El Fasher, the last town the Sudanese military holds in Darfur, has prompted alarming warnings from US and UN officials who fear massive bloodshed is imminent. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US envoy to the United Nations, told reporters on Monday that the city was “on the precipice of a massive massacre.”
El Fasher is the latest flashpoint in a year-old civil war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a powerful paramilitary group that the army once nurtured and is now its bitter rival for power. The conflict has devastated one of Africa’s largest countries and caused a massive humanitarian crisis. According to UN officials, this is one of the largest in decades.
