Twenty people were killed and 32 wounded after paramilitaries in Sudan fired artillery at a camp for displaced people in the Darfur region.
“The information we have received so far on casualties among residents of Abu Shouk displacement camp is at least 20 killed and 32 wounded,” the local resistance committee in El-Fasher said.
El-Fasher has been surrounded by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in an attempt since May to seize control of the last major city in Darfur still outside their grasp.
In a statement posted online late on Monday, the local committee attributed the deaths to the “deliberate shelling by the (RSF) militias on the camp’s market and square”.
The timing of the attack was not specified.
The El-Fasher committee is part of a grassroots network that previously organised pro-democracy protests and has been coordinating frontline aid since the conflict between the army and the RSF began last year.
The UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification review reveals that intense fighting has caused the Zamzam camp near El-Fasher to experience famine.
Aid to Zamzam and the surrounding area has been almost non-existent, with only limited assistance reaching Darfur region since the army-aligned government reopened the Adre crossing with Chad earlier this month.
The United Nations reported on Tuesday that 38 trucks had crossed the border, delivering approximately 1,250 tonnes of aid to 119,000 people in the vast Darfur region, where over five million people are internally displaced.
Zamzam alone, situated around 400 kilometres (250 miles) from the border, is home to about half a million people who are now facing severe starvation.
The conflict in Sudan, which erupted in April 2023, has already resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and the displacement of millions.
The United Nations has described the situation as one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises, with several areas facing imminent famine.