Rhino: Agencies – The use of fire as a weapon in Sudan’s conflict has increased, destroying more towns in the west of the country than ever before, a British report revealed on Monday.
Fires used as a weapon in Sudan destroyed more villages and towns in the west of the country in April 2024 than in any other month since the conflict began more than a year ago, an analysis by Sudan Witness, a UK-based rights group, said on Monday.
‘We have documented patterns of numerous fires and the ongoing destruction of settlements around western Sudan, large and small, since the conflict erupted last April,’ said Anouk Theunissen, Sudan Witness project manager, in a press release today.
‘When we see reports of fighting or airstrikes coinciding with clusters of fires, it indicates that fire is being used indiscriminately as a weapon of war.
Theunissen revealed that this trend is worsening and continues to cause mass displacement.
Sudan Witness, an open-source project run by the non-profit Information Resilience Centre, reported that 72 villages were either destroyed or damaged by fires last month, bringing the total number of villages hit by fires in Sudan to 201 since the conflict began in mid-April 2023.
According to the report, the number of fires escalated particularly in the north and west of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state.
Investigators from the Sudan Witness project examined fire patterns across war-torn Sudan using social media, satellite imagery and NASA’s public fire monitoring data.
Since the outbreak of the conflict, 51 settlements housing displaced people have caught fire more than once.
According to the British group, fires in Sudan have often been linked to the conflict.