PORT SUDAN: Paramilitary artillery shelling of a crowded market and nearby displaced people’s camp in Sudan’s Darfur region killed six people on Sunday, local health volunteers said.

The camp, Abu Shouk, is on the edge of the North Darfur state capital, El-Fasher, which paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have besieged since last May as part of the nearly two-year-old war against Sudan’s army.

The shelling “resulted in the deaths of six unarmed civilians so far, with other injuries yet to be counted,” said the local Emergency Response Room, one of hundreds of volunteer groups across war-torn Sudan helping to evacuate wounded, staff soup kitchens and maintain health services.

“This attack... struck the crowded market while civilians were shopping for Ramazan necessities,” the committee added, blaming the RSF.

Ramazan, which started on Saturday in Sudan, comes as the northeast African country continues to grapple with war, starvation and displacement.

In December, a United Nations-backed assessment said famine had taken hold in Abu Shouk and two other camps in the El-Fasher area, Al-Salam and Zamzam, and was projected to expand to five more areas including the city itself by May. The RSF have seized nearly the entire vast western region of Darfur.

However, they have not managed to claim El-Fasher, where army and allied forces have repeatedly pushed them back. Sudan’s war has so far killed tens of thousands, uprooted more than 12 million and brought millions to the brink of mass starvation.

On Wednesday the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said intense fighting in Zamzam camp had forced it “to temporarily pause the distribution of life-saving food and nutrition assistance” there.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2025