14 IDPs, including children, killed and injured in fire in Tawila, North Darfur

Eight people died and six others were injured, including four children and a 70-year-old woman, in a fire that broke out on Friday in the town of Tawila, 55 kilometers west of El-Fashir.

Eyewitnesses and relatives of the victims reported that a Hilux truck loaded with commercial quantities of gasoline caught fire. The vehicle was parked near a truck stop where a group of displaced families were preparing to travel to the town of Tina on the Sudanese-Chadian border.

Ahmed Mubarak, a relative of the victims, told Darfur 24 that eight members of his family were killed in the incident, the cause of which is still unknown. He added, “The family was on its way from Tawila to Tina after a new wave of displacement from Zamzam IDP camp.”

Eyewitness Ibrahim Youssef indicated that the gasoline fueled the fire, which quickly spread, causing significant loss of life and property. He confirmed that residents’ attempts to extinguish the fire failed.

The injured were transferred to the town’s hospital, while the bodies were buried on Saturday morning.

The town of Tawila has received approximately 500,000 displaced people from El-Fashir and Zamzam camp in recent weeks, following the Rapid Support Forces’ invasion and control of the camp on April 14.