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.



WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
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WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)

The World Health Organization is sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children being infected after the virus was detected in sewage samples, its chief said on Friday.

"While no cases of polio have been recorded yet, without immediate action, it is just a matter of time before it reaches the thousands of children who have been left unprotected," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an opinion piece in Britain's The Guardian newspaper.

He wrote that children under five were most at risk from the viral disease, and especially infants under two since normal vaccination campaigns have been disrupted by more than nine months of conflict.

Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Cases of polio have declined by 99% worldwide since 1988 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns and efforts continue to eradicate it completely.

Israel's military said on Sunday it would start offering the polio vaccine to soldiers serving in the Gaza Strip after remnants of the virus were found in test samples in the enclave.

Besides polio, the UN reported last week a widespread increase in cases of Hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as sanitary conditions deteriorate in Gaza, with sewage spilling into the streets near some camps for displaced people.