Complete destruction of villages and the collapse of trenches… Sudan on the brink of a major humanitarian disaster
Entire villages in Sudan’s West Darfur region have been burned to the ground, with aid agencies now warning the area is on the brink of a “humanitarian catastrophe”.
The ceasefire between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has calmed violence around the Sudanese capital Khartoum, but fighting continues in Darfur. As the conflict there enters its seventh week, the region appears to have descended into chaos, the BBC reports.
Destroying villages
Those who could not flee the war dug trenches around their neighborhoods and set up barricades to keep the fighting from destroying everything in its way, she said. Satellite imagery obtained by the BBC confirms that a village near Nyala in South Darfur, Abu Adam, has been completely wiped out by fire – black lines that can be seen from space.
Communication has been mostly cut off, NGOs and shops have been looted, most of the pharmacies have been looted, and all residential areas in Nyala have been sealed off with barricades and trenches dug so that the militias cannot enter residential neighborhoods.
A local activist in Nyala said that over 600,000 internally displaced people, who are completely dependent on humanitarian aid, had not received any assistance for 40 days due to the ongoing fighting.
Attacks on the Lifeline
“Once again, satellite imagery tells the story of attacks on a major civilian lifeline, such as the main market – part of which is destroyed by fire – a huge loss because Nyala supplies the area and even some neighboring countries”, the BBC said.
People desperately need help and aid workers are frantically trying to get to the area, she said, as they have gathered in neighboring Chad with plans to cross the border into Darfur as soon as possible, with aid agencies assisting refugees crossing into Chad but unable to enter due to the ongoing fighting.
“We know this is a very high risk, but we need to send humanitarian goods as quickly as possible,” says Justine Mosieck Beckimal, of the French nongovernmental organization Solidarités International. Because what we’re going to find, I think, is going to be bodies everywhere, no water, no toilets, no food.”
Satellite imagery shows how devastation is progressing in the city: the burned areas are visible from space, covering all the places where civil infrastructure was in place, and the town of Zalingei in Central Darfur is now a new focus of fighting, with the city in recent days being darkened and telecommunications cut off, making a catastrophic situation.
