Categories: World News

Sudan’s military ousts UN food aid officials in cold conflict

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Sudan’s military government has ordered two top officials from the UN’s world food program

The WFP said the directors in Sudan where it works are said to be “Personae non Grata” and told to leave within 72 hours, without explanation.

This decision comes in the immediate days of the rapid support force (RSF), captured the important town of El-Fasher in Darfur from the war after an 18-month siege, including a food blockade.

WFP said the evacuation came at a “crucial time” as the needs of people in Sudan “have never been greater than the more than 24 million people who are facing severe food insecurity”.

Although the military government did not give a reason for the evictions, the groups accused the groups of breaking local laws and spreading misleading reports about famine conditions.

The government said the dismissal would not affect the country’s cooperation with the WFP, State News Agency Hamba reported.

WFP says it is working with the Sudanese authorities to resolve the issue.

Two and a half years of fighting between the army and the RSF escalated on Sunday, when the RSF captured El-Fasher in the West Darfur region.

There are now fears for the fate of an estimated 250,000 people in the city, many from non-Arab communities. Reports of atrocities, including mass killings, have been on the rise since the fall of the city.

“The situation in El-Fasher is very sad and there are violations taking place in the streets, including robberies and shootings, without distinction made between the young or the old,” one man who managed to escape from El-Fasher told the BBC program CASAN LIFLISE LOKUDA.

“We were able to reach Tawila, where the people’s organizations are. We are thankful that we arrived, even if we were sleeping on the streets.”

Tawila is a town about 60km (37 miles) west of El-Fasher and displaced nearly 800,000 people – many of whom fled the large Zamzam camp near El-Fasher near RSF in April.

As the conflict erupted, those fighting the RSF and the Arab-led war in Darfur were accused of targeting non-Arabs – allegations the RSF denies.

On Tuesday, the El-FASHER resistance committee, a group of local activists, accused the RSF of killing people receiving treatment in a Saudi hospital.

Researchers at Yale University back this up, saying that satellite images appear to show “clusters” of bodies within hospital premises.

International bodies such as the European Union and the African Union have expressed alarm, while local residents say the current situation is reminiscent of the region’s darkest days.

Darfur experienced one of the highest humanitarian crises in the world from 2003 to 2020.

The Janjaweed, a militia accused of genocide and ethnic cleansing during this period, was included in what is now the RSF.

Sudanese-American poet Emtithal Mahmoud, who has family in El-Fasher and has lost relatives in previous Darfur conflicts, said he felt like he was going to be drafted again from RSF.

“The only difference … is that now it’s live and it’s videotaped and sent around because the RSF understands that they can do it without proper conduct,” Ms Mahmoud told the BBC.

RSF denies targeting civilians.