MSF warns that 15,000 refugees have arrived in Chad in recent days due to the fighting in Western Darfur

June 20 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has warned this Tuesday that a total of 15,000 refugees have arrived in recent days in the Chadian city of Adré from the capital of the Sudanese state of Western Darfur, El Geneina, within the framework of the intercommunal clashes between arab and masalit tribes.

The nearly 900 wounded who have arrived in Chad in the last five days report having been victims of attacks and shootings, as well as having witnessed dozens of murders as they fled from El Geneina, some 35 kilometers from the border with Chad.

MSF has asked in a statement that the armed groups “do not attack the civilian population and allow people who want to leave the area to do so safely” amid the chaos in Sudan due to the conflict between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

“On the night of Wednesday, June 14, the governor of West Darfur was assassinated. At that moment, we knew that the situation would get even worse, and, therefore, the population of El Geneina made the collective decision to leave,” he explained to the NGO a 25-year-old young man who arrived at the Adré hospital on June 15.

The young man has detailed that many displaced people flee on foot and die in the attempt due to the constant shooting. “I can’t say how many, but I saw many dead and wounded lying on the ground,” he said, adding that he himself received a blow to the face of the one who is currently recovering.

RAPE AND MASS KILLINGS

However, gunshots are not the only danger facing those fleeing the conflict. An 18-year-old girl who was traveling with two of her sisters has reported to MSF that six armed men who were traveling by bus detained them and kidnapped her sister to rape her.

“They kept her for some time inside the bus and, when they finished with her, they threw her out and left. My sister is only 15 years old,” said the young woman, who left her mother in Nyala and has no news about the whereabouts of his father.

Another 25-year-old recounts the hell of the mass killings and the displacement of the population after the looting in the villages. “They arrived in the neighborhoods in trucks and motorcycles, fully armed with machine guns and rifles mounted on their trucks. They killed everyone they saw and then looted the houses and set the place on fire,” he has sentenced.

The young man has recounted that for weeks many villagers in El Geneina were left without water or food, since the armed groups did not allow them to leave their homes. The dead are piling up in the streets and many are sheltering for fear of being shot while traveling to get supplies.

Similarly, another 27-year-old woman told MSF that she fled alone with her 5 daughters and 2 sons after she was shot in the right leg, causing multiple fractures while walking down the street near her home.

“I don’t want to go home because the unimaginable is happening; they are killing men and children. Sometimes the armed men let the women flee and sometimes they don’t,” said the woman, who has not heard from her husband.