ISTANBUL

Medical group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Friday reported a sharp increase in malnutrition cases among displaced civilians fleeing the city of El-Fasher to the nearby Tawila town in North Darfur, western Sudan.

In a statement, MSF said that Sudanese civilians continue to flee El-Fasher, with 300 new arrivals recorded in Tawila on Thursday.

The organization renewed its call for the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to allow more people “to flee safely,” amid reports of civilians still trapped or held for ransom around El-Fasher.

“We are seeing extremely high levels of malnutrition, primarily among children under five and pregnant women; gunshot wounds; fractures; and other injuries consistent with beatings and torture,” the statement said.

MSF noted that such violence has had “a huge impact on mental health” of displaced people, warning of a severe shortage of basic necessities, including water, food, and shelter, in Tawila’s camps hosting displaced civilians.

Separately, local sources told Sudanese Alrakoba newspaper that large military reinforcements from the RSF and its allied Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) have been deployed around the city of Dilling in South Kordofan.

The RSF captured El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, on Oct. 26 and committed massacres against civilians, according to local and international organizations, amid warnings that the assault could entrench the geographical partition of Sudan.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimated that more than 81,000 people have been displaced from El-Fasher and its surroundings since the RSF takeover.

Since April 15, 2023, the Sudanese army and the RSF have been locked in a war that regional and international mediations have failed to end. The conflict has killed thousands of people and displaced millions of others.