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GENEVA: The United Nations called Thursday for urgent action to prevent “large-scale, ethnically-driven attacks and atrocities” in Sudan’s besieged western city of El-Fasher.
The call from the UN rights office came after reports that long-range drones were being pre-positioned by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support forces in South Darfur, raising fears of a large attack on the North Darfur city of El-Fasher in coming days.
The RSF is currently waging its fiercest assault yet on El-Fasher, which is the last major city in the vast western region of Darfur still under control of the country’s regular army.
“After over 500 days of unremitting siege by the RSF and incessant fighting, El-Fasher is on the precipice of an even greater catastrophe if urgent measures are not taken loosen the armed vice upon the city and to protect civilians,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.
Following persistent reports of serious violence against those fleeing the city, including summary executions and torture, Turk insisted that “atrocities are not inevitable.”
“They can be averted if all actors take concrete action to uphold international law, demand respect for civilian life and property, and prevent the continued commission of atrocity crimes.”
Since April 2023, the war between the RSF and the country’s regular army has killed tens of thousands and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis.
Between September 19 and 29 alone, Turk’s office said at least 91 civilians were killed in RSF artillery shelling, drone strikes and ground incursions.
This “appears to be an effort to force the mass displacement of civilians from El-Fasher,” it warned.
Turk demanded protection for civilians remaining in El-Fasher, including those who may be unable to leave like the elderly and disabled, and called for parties to the conflict to allow in desperately-needed aid.
He described the “unimaginable difficulty” facing civilians there, decrying the continued arbitrary RSF restrictions on bringing food and essential supplies into the city, and citing credible reports of civilians tortured and killed by RSF fighters for doing so.
He also insisted that the “safe and voluntary passage of civilians must be ensured out of El-Fasher, and throughout their movement along key exit routes.”
Turk highlighted the high risk of ethnically-motivated violations and abuses, like those that took place during the earlier RSF offensive on the Zamzam displacement camp south of El-Fasher in April, including the systematic use of sexual violence targeting Zaghawa women and girls.

Israeli forces have intercepted 39 boats carrying aid and foreign activists, including Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg, to Gaza, leaving only one vessel still sailing toward the Palestinian enclave, the flotilla organizers said on Thursday.

Cameras broadcasting live feeds from the boats, verified by Reuters, showed Israeli soldiers sporting helmets and night vision goggles boarding the ships, while passengers huddled together in life vests with their hands up.

A video from the Israeli foreign ministry showed Thunberg, the most prominent of the flotilla’s passengers, sitting on a deck surrounded by soldiers.

Passengers diverted to an Israeli port

According to a tracker on the organizer, Global Sumud Flotilla’s website, one boat was still sailing. “Several vessels of the Hamas-Sumud flotilla have been safely stopped and their passengers are being transferred to an Israeli port,” the Israeli foreign ministry said on X. “Greta and her friends are safe and healthy.”

The flotilla, which set sail in late August, is transporting medicine and food to Gaza and consists of more than 40 civilian vessels with about 500 parliamentarians, lawyers and activists. It’s the highest-profile symbol of opposition to Israel’s blockade of Gaza.

The flotilla’s progress across the Mediterranean Sea garnered international attention as nations including Turkiye, Spain and Italy sent boats or drones in case their nationals required assistance, even as it triggered repeated warnings from Israel to turn back.

Turkiye’s foreign ministry called Israel’s “attack” on the flotilla “an act of terror” that endangered the lives of innocent civilians.

The Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office said it had launched an investigation into the detention of 24 Turkish citizens on the vessels on charges including deprivation of liberty, seizure of transport vehicles and damage to property, Turkiye’s state-owned Anadolu news agency reported.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro ordered the expulsion of Israel’s entire diplomatic delegation on Wednesday following the detention of two Colombians in the flotilla and terminated Colombia’s free trade agreement with Israel. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim condemned Israel’s actions and said Israeli forces had detained 23 Malaysians.

Interception triggers global protests

Israel’s interception of the flotilla sparked protests in Italy and Colombia, while protests were also called in Greece, Ireland and Turkiye. Italian unions called a general strike for Friday.

Israel’s navy had previously warned the flotilla it was approaching an active combat zone and violating a lawful blockade, and asked organizers to change course.

It had offered to transfer any aid peacefully through safe channels to Gaza.

The flotilla is the latest seaborne attempt to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza, much of which has been turned into a wasteland by almost two years of war. In a statement, Hamas expressed support for the activists and called Israel’s interception of the flotilla a “criminal act,” calling for public protests to condemn Israel.

The boats were about 70 nautical miles off Gaza when they were intercepted, inside a zone that Israel is policing to stop any boats approaching. The organizers said their communications, including the use of a live camera feed from some of the boats, had been scrambled.

Greece said it has been informed that 39 boats from the flotilla are sailing to the Israeli port of Ashdod and that everyone onboard is safe, no violence was exerted, the Greek public broadcaster reported.

The flotilla had hoped to arrive in Gaza on Thursday morning if it was not intercepted.

Israeli officials have repeatedly denounced the mission as a stunt.

“This systematic refusal (to hand over the aid) demonstrates that the objective is not humanitarian, but provocative,” Jonathan Peled, the Israeli ambassador to Italy, said in a post on X.

Prior attempts aid by sea

Israel has imposed a naval blockade on Gaza since Hamas took control of the coastal enclave in 2007 and there have been several previous attempts by activists to deliver aid by sea.

In 2010, nine activists were killed after Israeli soldiers boarded a flotilla of six ships manned by 700 pro-Palestinian activists from 50 countries.

In June this year, Israeli naval forces detained Thunberg and 11 crew members from a small ship organized by a pro-Palestinian group called the Freedom Flotilla Coalition as they approached Gaza.

Israel began its Gaza offensive after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken as hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. The offensive has killed over 65,000 people in Gaza, Palestinian health authorities say.