A school damaged by shelling where displaced people are sheltering, in El Fasher, Sudan, on Oct. 7.Mohyaldeen M Abdallah/Reuters
After a punishing 18-month siege, a powerful Sudanese militia has captured the main army headquarters in the Darfur city of El Fasher, provoking fears of new atrocities in a city already suffering from famine and bombings.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been battling Sudan’s army since the war erupted in 2023, posted social-media videos of its soldiers celebrating and waving Kalashnikov assault rifles in front of bullet-riddled buildings at the army base.
Other videos circulating online on Sunday showed an exodus of thousands of people from El Fasher. In one video, RSF soldiers are shown beating and whipping a large group of unarmed men, forcing them to break into a panicked run as they carried their meagre belongings.
The lengthy siege of the city and the army base has blocked almost all food supplies for the estimated 260,000 people who remain in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur and the only major city in Darfur that the RSF does not fully control.
LIBYA
EGYPT
SUDAN
Red
Sea
Khartoum
El Fasher
CHAD
Darfur
Region
ETHIOPIA
S. SUDAN
500 km
the globe and mail, Source: openstreetmap
LIBYA
EGYPT
SUDAN
Red
Sea
Khartoum
El Fasher
CHAD
Darfur
Region
ETHIOPIA
S. SUDAN
500 km
the globe and mail, Source: openstreetmap
LIBYA
EGYPT
SUDAN
Red
Sea
Khartoum
El Fasher
CHAD
Darfur
Region
ETHIOPIA
S. SUDAN
500 km
the globe and mail, Source: openstreetmap
An average of three children have been dying every day in El Fasher from starvation, disease and lack of health care, according to a statement last week by Razan Al-Mahdi, spokesperson for the Sudan Doctors Network.
Here’s what you need to know about the war in Sudan, including how the conflict started, and its human toll so far.
The RSF built a 57-kilometre earthen wall around the entire city this year, attacked it with frequent drone strikes and artillery shelling, and has reportedly been capturing and executing civilians who seek to leave or enter the city, making the food supply even more tenuous. Famine has been officially declared at several sites around El Fasher.
After fleeing the army base, Sudanese soldiers have retreated to other parts of El Fasher, with fighting continuing on Sunday, but the city seemed to be on the brink of falling to the RSF. Many analysts and human-rights groups are warning that the RSF, a mainly Arab militia, could massacre non-Arab civilians in El Fasher – as it has already done in other places.
Residents of Sudan's besieged city of El Fasher protect themselves from drones and shells after intensifying attacks on civilian infrastructure. The famine-stricken city is the Sudanese army's last holdout in Darfur as it battles the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in a civil war.
Reuters
In late 2023, after capturing the West Darfur city of El Geneina, the RSF killed an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 civilians in ethnically targeted atrocities, according to United Nations reports. The militia also killed hundreds of civilians in the sprawling Zamzam refugee camp after capturing it earlier this year.
“If El Fasher should fall, as appears likely, we should expect to see a ghastly reprise of El Geneina,” said Eric Reeves, a scholar who specializes in Sudan, in a social-media post on Sunday.
On the weekend, the RSF also captured Bara, a town in North Kordofan state. It has established a Darfur-based parallel government in the territory it controls, pushing Sudan closer to an unofficial partition.
Opinion: In Sudan, a constant test of the tenacity of hope
The war in Sudan is believed to have killed hundreds of thousands of people. It has forced about 12 million to flee their homes, and it has left 25 million to 30 million people – more than half of the country’s population - in dire need of humanitarian aid. The war is fuelled by weapons shipments from countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with many foreign powers seeking control of Sudan’s vast gold wealth, much of which is smuggled out of the country illicitly, analysts say.
The capture of the army base in El Fasher is a “historic victory” and a “decisive turning point” in the Sudan war, the RSF said in a statement on Sunday.
Close to 2,000 civilians have been captured by the paramilitary force in recent days as it pushed into the army base, according to the Darfur Network for Human Rights, an independent group. “The humanitarian situation is deteriorating rapidly, with immediate risks of mass violations similar to those witnessed previously in El Geneina,” it said on Sunday.
Relief agencies are voicing alarm. “All eyes must be on El Fasher,” said Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, a leading humanitarian group in the region. “Thousands remain trapped under siege, running out of food, water and medicine,” he said in a social-media post on Sunday.
The Trump administration has been trying to broker a ceasefire, with help from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, but it failed to obtain an agreement in talks last week.
“The world is watching El Fasher and the RSF’s actions with deep concern,” said Massad Boulos, the top U.S. envoy to Africa, in a statement on Sunday. “The RSF must act now to protect civilians and prevent further suffering.”
Sudanese activists complained about reports that the Trump administration had allowed a top RSF leader, Algoney Hamdan Daglo, to visit Washington for the talks last week, even though he has been under U.S. sanctions since last October for his role as a key buyer of weapons for the paramilitary force. Social-media videos appeared to show him talking freely with RSF officials in the lobby of a luxury hotel in Washington last week.