Sudan
91 killed in Darfur city in the last month
At least 91 civilians were killed in Sudan’s besieged city of el-Fasher in attacks by the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, within 10 days last month, the United Nations said on Thursday. The series of attacks was the latest in the intensified fighting between the army and rival paramilitaries seeking to control the city. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said on Thursday that the city’s Daraja Oula neighbourhood has been repeatedly attacked during RSF artillery shelling, drone strikes and ground incursions between Sept. 19 and 29. Turk called for urgent action to prevent “large-scale, ethnically-driven attacks and atrocities in El Fasher.” In its latest attack in the city, the RSF fired a missile that killed 16 people, including three women. , and injured 21 people, including five children, on Wednesday, the Sudan Doctors Network said. The network said residential neighbourhoods were targeted in what it described as a “massacre.” El-Fasher is the military’s last stronghold in the sprawling Darfur region, which has been the epicentre of the violence along with Kordofan.
The RSF did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press. The civil war between the RSF and the military erupted in 2023 and soon engulfed the country, killing at least 40,000 people, according to the World Health Organisation, and displacing as many as 12 million others. Over 24 million people are facing acute food insecurity, according to the World Food Program.
Wednesday’s attack came about a week after the RSF struck a bustling market in the city, killing 15 people. A separate strike on a mosque before that killed at least 70 people. The Resistance Committees in el-Fasher, a network of local people, including activists, that tracks the fighting and war-related abuses, said late Wednesday that the RSF used drones and artillery to target a group of civilians in the Daraga Oula neighbourhood in the west of el-Fasher city. It’s unclear whether that is the same attack reported by the Sudan Doctors Network.
Philippines
Storm Matmo inches closer
Tropical Storm Matmo edged closer to the Philippines on Thursday and was expected to intensify into a typhoon that could threaten southern China this weekend, just about a week after the region was battered by Ragasa, one of the strongest storms to hit Asia in years. Matmo, which had maximum sustained winds of 65 kph, is forecast to move west-northwest to the vicinity of Luzon, the Philippines’ most populous region, at about 22 kph, according to Hong Kong’s observatory on Thursday morning. The country’s central region was already grappling with the aftermath of an earthquake that killed dozens of people. The Philippine weather agency said it may make landfall over southern Isabela province or northern Aurora province.
on Friday, and is expected to cross northern Luzon. It warned of a moderate risk of life-threatening storm surge in the next 36 hours in some low-lying areas, saying sea travel is risky for all types of vessels.
The Hong Kong observatory forecast Matmo will enter the South China Sea after hitting the Philippines and intensify into a typhoon, bringing winds and showers to the Asian financial hub over the weekend.
It is expected to hit coastal area of neighbouring Guangdong province, the southern Chinese economic powerhouse, on Sunday before moving northwest into the Guangxi region and eventually dissipate around Yunnan province in southwestern China next week.
Some residents in southern China anticipated deteriorating weather as they mark the midautumn festival Monday, a time of family gatherings and lantern carnivals.
South China, including Hong Kong, has had an unusually high number of typhoons this year, far exceeding the seasonal norm, the City University of Hong Kong said last week. Its statement was issued as Super Typhoon Ragasa - the world’s strongest cyclone of the year, which once packed maximum sustained winds reaching 265 kph — approached the city before weakening and entering northeastern Vietnam. Earlier this week, Typhoon Bualoi left a deadly trail of destruction in Vietnam.
Its prime minister ordered urgent relief efforts after flooding and landslides triggered by Bualoi struck 17 northern and north-central provinces. More than 1,58,000 houses were destroyed, damaged or submerged, thousands of roads were blocked and at least 27 people died in Vietnam.
Flooding in the capital, Hanoi, isolated many neighbourhoods for more than a day. Though rains eased by Wednesday, large swaths of hard-hit Nghe An province remained deeply flooded.
