PORT SUDAN, Sudan: Civilians combed through the wreckage of their homes Sunday in the Sudanese city of El-Fasher, besieged for months by paramilitaries who have now launched a “full-scale assault,” according to the United Nations.
As the world body’s high-level General Assembly meeting prepares this week to spotlight Sudan’s 17-month war — which has claimed tens of thousands of lives and caused the world’s largest displacement crisis — global leaders have warned against cataclysmic violence in the city of two million.
US President Joe Biden has called on Sudan’s rival generals to “pull back their forces, facilitate unhindered humanitarian access, and re-engage in negotiations to end this war.”
But on the ground, shells have once again torn through civilian homes, in the latest flare-up of the war between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the regular army which has raged since April 2023.
“Most of our homes in the city’s south have been completely destroyed,” local resident Al-Tijani Othman told AFP by phone from his bombed-out neighborhood.
“There’s barely anyone left here,” he said, after months of bombardment and starvation.
On Saturday alone, health authorities managed to confirm 14 civilian deaths and 40 injuries, a medical source told AFP.
“But that’s nowhere near the real number of victims,” the source warned, requesting anonymity for his protection.
“People often have to bury their loved ones right then and there rather than brave the fighting on the road to the hospital,” he continued.

UN chief Antonio Guterres’ spokesperson said Saturday the Secretary-General was “gravely alarmed by reports of a full-scale assault” by the RSF and called on its commander, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, “to act responsibly and immediately order a halt to the RSF attack.”
Since May, the RSF has laid siege to the North Darfur state capital of El-Fasher — the only major city in Sudan’s vast western region of Darfur not under their control.
Even before their long-threatened multi-directional attack on the city, the violence had killed hundreds, according to medical charity Doctors Without Borders.
It had also displaced hundreds of thousands and forced the nearby Zamzam displacement camp into all-out famine, the UN said.
El-Fasher has long been surrounded by multiple displacement camps — including Zamzam and Abu Shouk — which have swelled by hundreds of thousands since the war began.
The Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab, which tracks the violence in Sudan using satellite imagery, reported on Friday civilians had been fleeing “en masse by foot on the road from El-Fasher to Zamzam,” where famine was declared last month.

On Sunday, those unwilling or unable to leave the city — such as resident Mohamed Safieldin — were compelled to take advantage of what they feared would be a brief respite in the fighting, venturing out to feed their families.
“But the food situation is difficult. We have to rely on community kitchens,” he told AFP while waiting for a meal from one of hundreds of volunteer initiatives that have popped up across Sudan — considered in places like El-Fasher the last defense against mass starvation.
The UN’s special adviser on the prevention of genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, said the “RSF’s multi-pronged assault, launched from at least four directions,” had “unleashed a maelstrom of violence that threatens to consume everything in its path.”
Eyewitnesses have reported bombardment by both the RSF and the army, both of whom have consistently been accused of war crimes including targeting civilians and the indiscriminate bombing of residential areas.
The RSF has specifically been accused of crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. Their assault on the West Darfur town of El-Geneina last year left up to 15,000 dead, mostly from the non-Arab Massalit community, UN experts determined.
Darfur, a region the size of France home to around a quarter of Sudan’s population, is deeply scarred by years of ethnic violence committed by the Janjaweed — the militia from which the RSF emerged.
World leaders have repeatedly warned of a repeat of Darfur’s past.
“We will not bear witness to another genocide,” the European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said Sunday, urging a return to negotiations — which experts warn have only ever been used by both sides to gain ground on the battlefield.
The World Health Organization said this month at least 20,000 people have been killed since the war began, but some estimates show up to 150,000 dead, according to US envoy to Sudan Tom Perriello.
The war has also displaced more than 10 million people — a fifth of Sudan’s population — both within the country and across borders.
In early September UN experts, after a fact-finding mission, called for deployment of an impartial force to protect Sudanese civilians — either a UN-mandated mission or an African Union-backed regional force.

HAIFA, Israel: Israelis inspected air raid shelters and stocked up on groceries Sunday after Hezbollah rocket fire threatened northern cities, with some saying they were not too worked up about the danger.
Ilan Ravor, a 76-year-old retiree, ducked into a public shelter near his home in Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city located about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the border with Lebanon.
He found the shelter a bit dirty but acceptable. Everything was more or less in working order, with the refrigerator full and the Internet functional.
While the space usually hosts Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, Ravor said he would not be surprised if he ended up spending more time there in the coming days.
“I am worried. I know that it is possible the missiles will reach here,” Ravor told AFP.
The cross-border barrages from Lebanon-based Hezbollah began nearly a year ago after Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, but fears of all-out war erupting have grown considerably over the past few days.
A series of coordinated blasts targeting beepers and other communications devices in Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday, widely blamed on Israel, killed 39 people and wounded almost 3,000.
On Friday, an Israeli air strike in a densely populated Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut killed the head of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, Ibrahim Aqil, and other members of the group.
Israel and Hezbollah then traded heavy fire over the weekend and threatened to further escalate their attacks on Sunday despite international calls for restraint.
On Sunday morning, hundreds of thousands of people in northern Israel fled to their local bomb shelters as a barrage of rockets was fired into Israel by Hezbollah, with some striking civilian structures.
“I know that Hezbollah is looking for revenge after what we did to them. Especially with the beepers last week,” Ravor said.
However, he added that he had “expected” tensions to ramp up and said he felt prepared.
“I think the Israeli military and the air force is strong enough to stop them.”

Haifa, a city of nearly 300,000 people and a major commercial port, is no stranger to incoming fire.
In the summer of 2006, during a war between Israel and Hezbollah, the militant group targeted Haifa with rockets, and 15 years earlier Iraqi missiles were fired at Haifa during the Gulf War.
“This morning, we were a little bit shocked,” said writer Sylvia, 77. “But we are not afraid, we are more in a state of expectation.”
Adir Schaffer, a 33-year-old gardener who lives in an area of Haifa where many buildings do not have shelters, said: “It is unfortunate but we have gotten used to it. We know that Hezbollah wants to destroy Haifa. People can change, but the ideology remains.”
Schaffer added that he hoped for “days of peace” but was trying to keep recent events in perspective.
“We grew up with stories of the Holocaust, of previous wars, so even if what happened last night is important, we are not overly worried.”
While Schaffer was not taking any special precautions, other residents rushed to food shops and filled their cars with water and canned goods.
Some seemed frantic, shopping as often as five times in a day, mini-market employee Shaked Ariel said.
“They don’t know what to do,” the 24-year-old told AFP.
Though Sunday is the first day of the working week in Israel, the streets were relatively empty after authorities ordered schools in the area closed.
Many offices were also deserted after employees preferred to stay away.
Haifa residents played video clips of rocket damage elsewhere on their mobile phones, staring at images of burnt houses and cars.
The nearby city of Kiryat Bialik came under fire, damaging Lea Sabag’s house, but she told AFP she was trying to keep calm.
“We know it will last a few days and we have to keep our spirits up,” she said.
“I hope we will face it bravely.”
A small demonstration was held later in Haifa, with many holding placards calling for the release of hostages.
“I don’t see this (past) night as different than any other night,” said Orit Zacks, a 64-year-old protester.
“I don’t sleep properly anymore since October 7, because I cannot sleep when people are held hostages and haven’t seen the light of day for almost a year and last night was no different for me.”