Three Killed in Latest Violence in Sudan's Darfur

An internally displaced Sudanese family poses for a photograph outside their makeshift shelter within the Kalma camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur, Sudan April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo
An internally displaced Sudanese family poses for a photograph outside their makeshift shelter within the Kalma camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur, Sudan April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo
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Three Killed in Latest Violence in Sudan's Darfur

An internally displaced Sudanese family poses for a photograph outside their makeshift shelter within the Kalma camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur, Sudan April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo
An internally displaced Sudanese family poses for a photograph outside their makeshift shelter within the Kalma camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Darfur, Sudan April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo

Three people were killed Friday in Sudan's restive Darfur region, witnesses and an aid group said, as the United Nations condemned recent clashes that have left over 200 dead.

West Darfur state, the arid region of Sudan bordering Chad, has for the past week been gripped by deadly violence between members of the Massalit community and Arab fighters.

On Friday, gunmen opened fire in a fruit market in West Darfur's state capital El Geneina, said Adam Regal from the General Coordination for Refugees and Displaced in Darfur, a Sudanese independent aid group.

"Three people were shot dead in El Geneina," Regal said, a toll confirmed by local resident Abdelrahman Hussein. It was not immediately clear what provoked the shooting, AFP reported.

Over 200 people have been killed and scores wounded in a week of heavy fighting, initially centered around the town of Krink, before spreading to El Geneina, which lies over 1,100 kilometers west of the capital Khartoum.

On Friday, the UN Security Council condemned the clashes and called for an "immediate cessation of violence" and a "transparent investigation" into those responsible.

The UN stressed "the primary responsibility of state authorities to protect civilians."

The latest violence comes as Sudan grapples with fallout from a coup in October last year led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

Last week's deadly violence erupted with gunmen reportedly attacking Massalit villages around Krink in retaliation for the killing of two comrades.

The UN said more than 1,000 armed members of the Arab Rizeigat community then swept into the town.

Health facilities and government buildings were attacked or set on fire in the violence, according to the UN.

Witnesses have accused the Janjaweed militia of orchestrating the violence.



With Nowhere Else to Hide, Gazans Shelter in Former Prison

24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
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With Nowhere Else to Hide, Gazans Shelter in Former Prison

24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)

After weeks of Israeli bombardment left them with nowhere else to go, hundreds of Palestinians have ended up in a former Gaza prison built to hold murderers and thieves.

Yasmeen al-Dardasi said she and her family passed wounded people they were unable to help as they evacuated from a district in the southern city of Khan Younis towards its Central Correction and Rehabilitation Facility.

They spent a day under a tree before moving on to the former prison, where they now live in a prayer room. It offers protection from the blistering sun, but not much else.

Dardasi's husband has a damaged kidney and just one lung, but no mattress or blanket.

"We are not settled here either," said Dardasi, who like many Palestinians fears she will be uprooted once again.

Israel has said it goes out of its way to protect civilians in its war with the Palestinian group Hamas, which runs Gaza and led the attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that sparked the latest conflict.

Palestinians, many of whom have been displaced several times, say nowhere is free of Israeli bombardment, which has reduced much of Gaza to rubble.

An Israeli air strike killed at least 90 Palestinians in a designated humanitarian zone in the Al-Mawasi area on July 13, the territory's health ministry said, in an attack that Israel said targeted Hamas' elusive military chief Mohammed Deif.

On Thursday, Gaza's health ministry said Israeli military strikes on areas in eastern Khan Younis had killed 14 people.

Entire neighborhoods have been flattened in one of the most densely populated places in the world, where poverty and unemployment have long been widespread.

According to the United Nations, nine in ten people across Gaza are now internally displaced.

Israeli soldiers told Saria Abu Mustafa and her family that they should flee for safety as tanks were on their way, she said. The family had no time to change so they left in their prayer clothes.

After sleeping outside on sandy ground, they too found refuge in the prison, among piles of rubble and gaping holes in buildings from the battles which were fought there. Inmates had been released long before Israel attacked.

"We didn't take anything with us. We came here on foot, with children walking with us," she said, adding that many of the women had five or six children with them and that water was hard to find.

She held her niece, who was born during the conflict, which has killed her father and brothers.

When Hamas-led gunmen burst into southern Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7 they killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 people hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in the air and ground offensive Israel launched in response, Palestinian health officials say.

Hana Al-Sayed Abu Mustafa arrived at the prison after being displaced six times.

If Egyptian, US and Qatari mediators fail to secure a ceasefire they have long said is close, she and other Palestinians may be on the move once again. "Where should we go? All the places that we go to are dangerous," she said.