US warns of 'large-scale massacre' in Sudan city
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The US ambassador to the United Nations on Monday warned of an impending "large-scale massacre" in the Sudanese city of El-Fasher, a humanitarian hub in the Darfur region.
The city had until recently been relatively unaffected by fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), but bombardment and clashes have been reported both there and in surrounding villages since mid-April.
El-Fasher "is on the precipice of a large-scale massacre. This is not conjecture. This is the grim reality facing millions of people," Linda Thomas-Greenfield told journalists following a UN Security Council meeting on Sudan.
"There are already credible reports that the RSF and its allied militias have razed multiple villages west of El-Fasher, and as we speak, the RSF is planning an imminent attack on El-Fasher," which "would be a disaster on top of a disaster," Thomas-Greenfield said.
Millions have been displaced in the country since fighting began last year between the SAF forces of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF paramilitaries under General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
El-Fasher functions as the main humanitarian hub in the vast western region of Darfur, home to around a quarter of Sudan's 48 million people.