UN: At least 11 children killed in drone strike on mosque in besieged El Fasher
CAIRO (Associated Press)
The United Nations children’s agency said at least 11 children were killed in a drone strike four days ago that hit a mosque in the besieged city of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.
Local aid groups, activists, and the Sudanese army have accused the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of carrying out the strike during Friday prayers, which left at least 70 people dead and many others trapped under the rubble.
Preliminary reports indicated that at least 11 children between the ages of 6 and 15 were killed and “many more” injured in the attack, which also destroyed nearby homes, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement Monday, calling the strike “horrific.”
“The people killed were utterly innocent. They were people seeking shelter, praying in a mosque,” Sheldon Yett, UNICEF’s representative in Sudan, told the Associated Press. “It is a terrible, senseless act.”
The strike comes as Sudan’s army and the RSF wage increasingly fierce battles as part of the country’s ongoing civil war. The conflict has killed at least 40,000 people, displaced up to 12 million, and pushed millions to the brink of famine, according to the World Health Organization.
Three doctors were among those killed in the mosque attack, according to the preliminary committee of the Sudanese Doctors Syndicate and the Sudan Doctors Union Network. The groups said they were among 231 doctors killed since the outbreak of the war.
“This latest attack has torn families apart and shattered any sense of safety for children who have already suffered so much,” Russell said, noting that El Fasher’s siege has left children trapped in violence, with little access to food, clean water, or healthcare, while being “forced to witness horrors no child should ever see.”
Antoine Gérard, the UN’s deputy humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, told AP on Monday that civilians in El Fasher now face increasing attacks and are unable to flee due to the siege and the lack of safe routes.
“We are extremely concerned about the targeting of civilians, particularly hospitals, mosques, schools, and other civilian infrastructure,” he said.
In a statement Sunday, Egypt, Sudan’s northern neighbor, condemned the drone strike, calling it “a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law,” and denounced the targeting of places of worship and innocent civilians.
Fighting for control of El Fasher and surrounding areas has intensified since early April. More than 400 civilians have been killed in RSF attacks in the region since April 10, according to a UN Human Rights Office report released Friday. Most were killed in a large-scale assault that captured the nearby Zamzam displacement camp, which the RSF has since turned into a military base to launch further attacks on El Fasher.
Thousands of children in Darfur remain at risk of malnutrition, with many already suffering from severe acute malnutrition, according to Yett. He added that residents of El Fasher have very limited access to food.
“We know that all of North Darfur has been badly affected. We know disease rates are rising significantly. We know water and sanitation are very hard to access,” Yett said, adding that the combination of these factors “means many children are dying who should not be dying.”
