The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has no access to El Fasher in Darfur despite a proposed three-month humanitarian truce, and the recent massacre in the city by the Rapid Support Forces militia.
“We don’t really know how many civilians are still there,” said Raouf Mazou, the UNHCR’s assistant high commissioner.
Speaking to EUobserver on Wednesday (19 November), Mazou said most people fled to Tawila, a town west of El Fasher after the RSF killing spree left some 2,500 dead.
“If tomorrow we were to have access to El Fasher, we would provide humanitarian assistance to the civilian population,” he said.
The humanitarian ceasefire was proposed in September by the so-called Quad, composed of the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.
Mazou declined to speculate on the role of the United Arab Emirates, despite reports it is providing the RSF with economic, political and military aid.
Some of those weapons are produced by the UK, according to the Guardian newspaper.
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