Media and rights groups at several instances reported conflict-related infrastructure damage in North Darfur, caused by SAF airstrikes hitting health facilities,749 markets750 as well as an airstrike on El Daein, East Darfur, which hit a hospital and a market.751 RSF shelling hit health facilities752 as well as markets753 in and around El Fasher in North Darfur. Between 10 May and mid-August 2024, MSF recorded hospitals in El Fasher being bombarded 11 times. During that time, according to MSF, 2 500 casualties arrived at MSF-supported hospitals in the area and 370 patients passed away from their injuries. Saudi hospital, the largest hospital in North Darfur and the only remaining hospital to provide surgeries, was hit during a bombardment in August.754 RSF artillery shelling of Abou Shouk IDP camp in November 2024 reportedly caused significant damage755 while numerous houses there had already been destroyed due to the camp’s location in the conflict zone.756
A September report by the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab analysed that the escalation in fighting between the RSF and the SAF in El Fasher was ‘likely to effectively reduce what is left of El-Fasher to rubble’.757 A map created by The Guardian based on data gathered by the London-based Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) shows villages damaged or destroyed in targeted fires across Sudan, with many such locations in the Darfur region targeted between October 2023 and March 2024, especially in South Darfur, East Darfur and around the North Darfur state capital El Fasher.758
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Ayin Network, Two towns in North Darfur – permanent targets for Sudan’s airstrikes, 25 November 2024, url; Darfur Victims Support Organisation, Report on Airstrike by Sudanese Armed Forces in Saraf Omra, North Darfur State – El Fasher, 15 November 2024, url; MSF, Bomb kills two children and puts El Fasher hospital out of action amid fighting, 12 May 2024, url
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Amnesty International, Sudan: SAF airstrike on crowded market a flagrant war crime, 12 December 2024, url; Sudan Tribune, ناشطون: مقتل 59 شخصًا في غارات جوية للجيش السوداني استهدفت سوقًا بشمال دارفور [Activists: 59 people killed in SAF airstrikes that targeted market in North Darfur], 4 October 2024, url; Darfur 24, Over a Dozen Civilians Killed as Army Launches Another Airstrike in El Fasher, 5 September 2024, url
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DNHR, BREAKING: Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) warplanes have launched devastating airstrikes in East and North Darfur, 21 August 2024, url
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DNHR, Continued Airstrikes and Bombings Devastate Darfur: Civilians Bear the Brunt, 27 August 2024, url; ADF, As Sudan War Continues, Fighting Splits Along Ethnic Lines in Darfur, 28 May 2024, url
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Sudan Tribune, Sudanese army shoots down 20 RSF drones in El Fasher, 29 November 2024, url; DNHR, Continued Airstrikes and Bombings Devastate Darfur: Civilians Bear the Brunt, 27 August 2024, url
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MSF, Last hospital in El Fasher risks closure during intensive bombardment on the city, 14 August 2024, url
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DNHR, Still, in Abu Shouk Camp, El Fasher lives with worries about the artillery she is shelling by RSF, 24 November 2024, url
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Sudan Tribune, RSF accused of atrocities in fresh attack on El Fasher camp, 22 May 2024, url
- 757
Yale School of Public Health – Humanitarian Research Lab, Free-Fire Zone: Widespread Aerial and Artillery Bombardment across El-Fasher, 13 September 2024, url, p. 3
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Guardian (The), Increasing number of villages torched across Sudan shows conflict is intensifying – report [Map], 17 April 2024, url