Researchers at the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab have been tracking developments in the city using satellite imagery, and their latest report, published last week, suggests the RSF is still burning bodies and burying them in mass graves as they work to clean up atrocities committed across the city over the past month.
A satellite image taken on November 6 shows smoke from a fire lit at the Saudi Hospital in El-Fasher.Credit: Vantor/AP
Satellite imagery taken between October 30 and November 13 at the Saudi Hospital in El Fasher shows a newly dug pit, objects placed in the pit, and the objects actively burning.Credit: Yale School of Public Health/Vantor
Earlier satellite images taken days after the city’s capture and analysed by the Yale lab showed dark stains on the sand, indicative of blood, and piles of long white shapes later confirmed to be bodies.
The United Nations is now pushing for access to El Fasher to provide aid, with UN aid chief Tom Fletcher saying the city would be treated as a “crime scene” for investigations following the reports of systematic executions, detentions, and rapes.
The International Organisation for Migration says nearly 90,000 people have left El Fasher and surrounding villages since the city fell on October 26, undertaking a perilous journey through unsafe routes where they have no access to food, water or medical assistance.
The fraction of those who have escaped the city and made their way to a refugee camp in Tawila, 65 kilometres away, recount horrific stories of killings and sexual assaults witnessed or endured after the city fell to the RSF. Hundreds of children have also been turning up at the Tawila camp alone, the Washington Post reported, having seen their parents killed or losing them in the chaos.
Weeks-old babies have also been found en route to Tawila, clinging to their dead parents, the Washington Post reported, citing humanitarian groups.
The United Arab Emirates, a close US ally, has been sending weapons to the RSF, according to American intelligence findings, while Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia have backed the Sudanese military.
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At the US-Saudi investment forum in Washington on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT), Trump said Prince Mohammed had told him that bringing an end to the war “would be the greatest thing you can do, that would be greater than what you’ve already done.”
Trump’s comments come after Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week called for a halt to the flow of military support coming to the paramilitary RSF from abroad.
Saudi officials, in part, have argued to the administration that a further unravelling of Sudan could result in instability in the Red Sea and Africa and create conditions for extremist groups to exploit the moment to spread terrorism in the Middle East and beyond.
Trump, following his remarks, said in a social media post that his administration would work with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, and other Middle Eastern partners “to get these atrocities to end, while at the same time stabilising Sudan.”
“Tremendous atrocities are taking place in Sudan,” Trump wrote in the Truth Social post. “It has become the most violent place on Earth and, likewise, the single biggest Humanitarian Crisis. Food, doctors, and everything else are desperately needed.”
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Trump appeared with Prince Mohammed as the crown prince wrapped up his first visit to Washington in seven years.
The prince believes Trump’s direct pressure is needed to break a logjam in talks to end the war, pointing to his work to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza last month, five people familiar with the matter said.
AP, Bloomberg, Reuters
