'Barely anyone left': Sudan's El-Fasher devastated by fighting
Civilians combed through the wreckage of their homes Sunday in the Sudanese city of El-Fasher, besieged for months by paramilitaries who have now launched a "full-scale assault", according to the United Nations.
As the world body's high-level General Assembly meeting prepares Sunday to debate Sudan's 17-month war – which has claimed tens of thousands of lives and caused the world's largest displacement crisis – world leaders have warned against cataclysmic violence in the city of two million.
US President Joe Biden has called on Sudan's rival generals to "pull back their forces, facilitate unhindered humanitarian access, and re-engage in negotiations to end this war".
But on the ground, shells have once again torn through civilian homes, in the latest flare-up of the war between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the regular army which has raged since April 2023.
"Most of our homes in the city's south have been completely destroyed," local resident Al-Tijani Othman told AFP by phone from his bombed-out neighbourhood.
"There's barely anyone left here," he said, after months of bombardment and starvation.
On Saturday alone, health authorities managed to confirm 14 civilian deaths and 40 injuries, a medical source told AFP.
"But that's nowhere near the real number of victims," the source warned, requesting anonymity for his protection.
"People often have to bury their loved ones right then and there rather than brave the fighting on the road to the hospital," he continued.
Fleeing en masse
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