KHARTOUM, June 11 (Xinhua) -- A United Nations (UN) agency warned on Tuesday that the ongoing clashes in and around El Fasher, the capital city of North Darfur State in western Sudan, "are taking a grim toll on humanitarian workers and operations."
An aid worker for the non-governmental organization Relief International died on Monday in Darfur after being shot during clashes on June 1, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement.
"He was the sixth aid worker killed in Sudan in the past six weeks," it said, underscoring that "humanitarians must be protected" during conflicts not only in Sudan but everywhere else in the world, since "they continue to deliver life-saving assistance to people in need despite dangers."
The OCHA noted that humanitarian works are currently underfunded in Sudan, which is facing severe humanitarian crisis including famine and displacement.
This year's humanitarian appeal for Sudan is just 16 percent funded, with less than 441 million U.S. dollars received of the 2.7 billion dollars required, the UN agency said.
Since May 10, fierce clashes have been raging in El Fasher between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), killing a total of 288 civilians and injuring 1,300 others so far, according to official statistics.
El Fasher's clashes constitute the latest escalation of the broader conflict between the SAF and the RSF across the country since April 15, 2023, which has so far claimed 15,550 lives and displaced over 8.8 million people nationwide, according to OCHA's latest estimates. ■