Residents of the regional capital of North Darfur are mourning more than 70 people killed in a single drone strike by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a mosque during Friday dawn prayers.
UNICEF said initial reports “indicate that at least 11 children, aged six to 15, were killed”.
The agency called the incident “shocking and unconscionable”, adding the attack had also hit “adjacent homes” and many more children were hurt.
The attack has shaken the spirit of the entire state – it was a serious violation of the rules of war.
“We buried them inside the mosque in a mass grave,” says Mohamed Hassan Quba of Al Fashir’s revolutionary resistance committee, providing a lifeline for civilians.
“An RSF strategic drone monitored us as we worked to bury them – we knew it could be a double strike, but refused to stop. We persisted and they were buried with great sadness.
“Drones have not left the sky of Al Fashir over the last 72 hours.”
RSF drones are striking other targets in Al Daraja neighbourhood in eastern Al Fashir, an area where civilians seek safety and medical treatment.
Since the Al Daraja mosque massacre, drones have dropped bombs on the last standing health facility in the city, the Saudi Hospital, already severely damaged by previous RSF shelling, as well as striking the home of the secretary-general of North Darfur, Mohamed Abdullah Adam, killing him and his wife.
These aerial attacks come after 16 months of the RSF starving, shelling and economically paralysing Al Fashir.
A final assault on a strangled symbol of regional power to complete their control of western Sudan.
But unlike other state capitals and key towns in Darfur where the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have tactically withdrawn, surrendered or deserted civilians, Al Fashir’s fighters say they will battle it out until their last breath.
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The Joint Task Forces defending the city from capture are made up of former rebels from across Darfur and residents – men and some women – who have taken up arms to defend their homes.
‘They will fight until the last bullet’
Governor of Darfur and commander of the Joint Task Forces, Arko Mini Minawi, says the fight is existential.
“This is a personal target and an ethnicity target. That is the motivation that makes people withstand this – everyone knows if they surrender, they will be killed, and if they fight, they will survive. It is a matter of survival,” he says.
The governor adds: “People are swearing they will fight until the last bullet – whatever the case. Even the civilians, more than 900,000 are still there insisting [on being] there in their own territory regardless of the cost.
“Our people do not fear direct confrontation. The only effective weapons are the sophisticated weapons coming from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – the strategic drones.”
In a statement sent to Sky News, the UAE said it “categorically rejects any claims of providing any form of support to either warring party since the onset of the civil war, and condemns atrocities committed by both Post Sudan Authority and RSF.”
