STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Just a few years ago, more than 1 million people lived in the city of El Fasher in Sudan's Darfur region. Many people were still there in October and trapped when the Rapid Support Forces overran the city. That paramilitary group carried out atrocities that are estimated to have left many thousands dead and displaced many of those who remain.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Denise Brown is the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Sudan. When her team was finally able to access El Fasher last month, she says they found a devastated ghost town. Survivors lacked food, water and medical supplies.
DENISE BROWN: We found different groupings of hundreds of people, families, some of them living in whatever kind of building they could find. But people were living under a blanket or living under plastic sheeting from something they had found - no toilets. Water is cited as the biggest issue right now - access to clean water.
INSKEEP: Now, the Arab militia, the Rapid Support Forces, is backed by the United Arab Emirates. It traces its roots to the Janjaweed fighters who carried out genocide in that same region more than 20 years ago. The RSF has been fighting Sudan's military for control of the country for years. Both the United States and the United Nations are among those accusing the RSF of committing genocide once again.
MARTÍNEZ: Brown says more than 100,000 people have fled El Fasher since the October takeover. They carry with them stories of horrific violence.
BROWN: I've heard directly the stories about sexual violence, about losing family members, being shot in front of them, being shot while trying to escape.
INSKEEP: One woman Brown met carried her dead neighbor's severely malnourished infant to safety on her back. She walked more than 30 miles in flip-flops.
MARTÍNEZ: Brown says because of fighting and unexploded ordnance, it took weeks to negotiate her team's visit.
BROWN: It took too long. I would have wished we could have gone in sooner, but if we'd gone in sooner and unprepared and something had happened, then it would be very difficult to have the next step, and there have to be next steps.
INSKEEP: Now, just a week before her team's visit to El Fasher, six U.N. peacekeepers were killed in a drone attack in a neighboring region. Brown asked if the pattern that's unfolded over the course of this war is repeating itself.
BROWN: We're talking thousands and thousands of people being killed - women and children. The world should care about that. There's something called international humanitarian law, which is not irrelevant. And there's something called human rights. I think the world should be paying much more attention to what's going on here.
MARTÍNEZ: Brown says the U.N. is working on releasing future reports on allegations of summary execution, sexual violence and other atrocities. This crisis, she says, cannot be forgotten or swept under the rug. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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