(FILES) This image grab taken from AFPTV video footage on April 20, 2023, shows an aerial view of black smoke rising above the Khartoum International Airport amid ongoing battles between the forces of two rival generals. (Photo by AFP)
Port Sudan, Sudan: Sudanese volunteer rescuers said Wednesday that seven people were killed and 11 others wounded by paramilitary shelling at a famine-stricken refugee camp near El-Fasher, the besieged capital of North Darfur.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), locked in a war with the army since April 2023, hit the Abu Shouk refugee camp and a nearby market with "artillery shelling", according to the camp's emergency response room, part of a network of volunteer rescuers across Sudan.
The attack came as the RSF continued its months-long siege of El-Fasher, the last state capital in the vast western region of Darfur still under army control.
In its latest push to capture the city, the RSF last week issued an ultimatum demanding that army forces and their allies withdraw.
On Friday, a drone strike hit the city's only functioning hospital, killing at least 70 people, including patients receiving critical care.
The fighting around the city has seen army forces and their allies repelling repeated RSF attacks while civilians bear the brunt of relentless shelling.
With nearly 1.7 million people displaced in North Darfur alone, the humanitarian situation in the region is dire.
Around two million people are facing extreme food insecurity, while 320,000 are already in famine conditions, according to UN estimates.
Famine has already gripped three displacement camps around El-Fasher -- Zamzam, Abu Shouk and Al-Salam -- and is expected to spread to five more areas, including El-Fasher itself, by May.
The war in Sudan has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million, making it the world's largest displacement crisis, according to the UN.
