Diplomats and high-ranking UN officials, speaking at the UN Security Council, condemned the mass killings committed by the Rapid Support Forces in El Fasher after the Sudanese city "returned to an even darker hell" following its capture by the paramilitary group over the weekend, UNN reports with reference to The Guardian.
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Widespread reports of ethnically motivated killings in recent days prompted the UK, as the UN representative for Sudan, to convene an emergency meeting of the Security Council in New York on Thursday.
People fleeing El Fasher arrive in Tawila after the city was captured by RSF militias on Sunday.
"The situation is simply horrific," Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Africa, told the meeting. "Last week, the UN Human Rights Office documented widespread and serious human rights violations in and around El Fasher. These include credible reports of mass killings in various locations and extrajudicial executions during house-to-house searches, as well as attempts by civilians to flee the city.
"Communication is cut off. The situation is chaotic." In this context, it is difficult to estimate the number of civilian casualties. Despite commitments to protect civilians, the reality is that no one feels safe in El Fasher. There is no safe route for civilians to leave the city."
Pobee added: "External support fuels the conflict. Weapons and fighters continue to flow into Sudan, further exacerbating an already desperate situation."
Tom Fletcher, Deputy Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, told the meeting: "El Fasher, already a place of catastrophic human suffering, has plunged into an even darker hell."
Fletcher condemned reports of the killing of nearly 500 people at the Saudi maternity hospital and said tens of thousands of people were fleeing to Tawila, where civilians, mostly women and children, face extortion, violence and abductions.
In its statement, the Security Council said that recent events in El Fasher had a devastating impact on civilians, and that council members "condemned reports of atrocities committed by the RSF against civilians, including extrajudicial executions and arbitrary detentions."