ALBAWABA - Sudanese paramilitaries attacked the Darfur city of El Fasher for two days, killing 48 people, a medical source told AFP on Friday after international leaders urged an end to the country's suffering.
Artillery fire from the Rapid Support Forces killed 30 people and injured scores on Friday, according to a medical source at El Fasher Teaching Hospital, as paramilitaries and the regular army battle for control of the North Darfur state capital.
The bombardment comes a day after an assault on a market left "18 dead in the hospital" on Thursday, "some of them burned and others killed by shrapnel," according to the source, who asked to remain anonymous for their own safety due to recurrent attacks on health personnel and hospitals.
U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said Wednesday: "We must compel the warring parties to accept humanitarian pauses in El Fasher, Khartoum, and other highly vulnerable areas,".
One of the only hospitals in El Fasher currently accepting patients is the Teaching Hospital. Last weekend, U.N. head Antonio Guterres called for an urgent cease-fire in El Fasher following allegations of a "full-scale assault" by RSF.
Since May, paramilitaries have surrounded El Fasher, and in the 2 million-person city's vicinity, the Zamzam refugee camp has declared a famine.
Thousands of people have died in the war. According to U.S. Ambassador Tom Perriello, some estimates go as high as 150,000, although the World Health Organization has reported a death toll of at least 20,000.
