ISTANBUL 

Shelling by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) killed at least 18 people and injured more than 100 others in El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State in western Sudan, local medics said on Tuesday.

The Sudan Doctors Network accused the RSF of deliberately targeting residential neighborhoods in El-Fasher on Monday evening, causing the casualties, including women and children.

In a statement, the medical group said the RSF atrocities in the city represent “merely another chapter in a series of brutal crimes that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, which the RSF has been committing for over a year in Darfur.”

It blamed the international community, the United Nations, and the African Union “fully responsible for their disgraceful silence and failure to protect more than half a million civilians trapped inside El-Fasher, who are being subjected daily to shelling, starvation, and slow death.”

Local committees and authorities in El-Fasher have repeatedly accused the RSF of responsibility for artillery attacks and repeated assaults on the city, which has been under siege since May 10, 2024, despite international warnings over the risks of fighting in the city that serves as the hub for humanitarian operations across Darfur’s five states.

The army and RSF have been fighting a war since April 2023 that has killed more than 20,000 victims and displaced 14 million, according to the UN and local authorities. Research from US universities, however, estimates the death toll at around 130,000.