Airstrikes in Darfur Missed Their Target. These Refugees Were Hit Instead.

Ten-year-old Isah Abdallah Fadul was injured last year in an airstrike at a busy market in Darfur. Isah and her family are among the latest arrivals from Sudan seeking medical treatment at this Doctors Without Borders clinic amid a violent civil war. The Sudanese military and paramilitary fighters with Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, have been engaged in a brutal conflict since April of 2023. According to a recent U.N. report, the military has been carrying out airstrikes to repel advances by the R.S.F., resulting in high death tolls and a worsening humanitarian situation that is sending refugees fleeing to remote parts of the border. A bomb from one of these airstrikes hit Isah 10 months ago, shortly after paramilitary troops infiltrated the market. Her father bandaged her injuries, but finding proper treatment had been challenging, until now. Doctors Without Borders recently scaled up their mobile clinic services to meet the growing demand of refugee arrivals. That number is expected to rise after Sudan’s military retook the capital of Khartoum in March. And as the R.S.F. regroups in its Darfur stronghold, this was the scene just days later when another airstrike hit an open-air market in Northern Darfur. The Sudanese military and the R.S.F. have both been accused of atrocities. After the market airstrike, the army was accused of indiscriminately attacking civilian areas. The army responded that any allegations that the attack was an atrocity committed against civilians are completely false. Meanwhile, the R.S.F. has faced frequent accusations by the United States of genocide over ethnic massacres carried out by its soldiers and allied militias. Again and again, a pattern emerged in our interviews with survivors. R.S.F. troops would move into a village or town, only to be followed by a Sudanese military airstrike. At this refugee camp in Adré, further south along the Sudanese border, another family that just arrived shared their story. For refugees who do make it across the border, the first step is to assess and treat before making decisions on what comes next. Back in Tiné, Isah’s doctors say her leg is infected and that she’ll have to be transferred to a larger hospital in the coming days.