Rabat – Yet another major escalation of violence gripped the Sudanese region of Darfur over the weekend, with a battle over the besieged city of El Fasher. This is the first time that the RSF fighters have entered the city since the battle began 15 months ago.
The battle between the insurgent Sudanese paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces and the city’s defences lasted for seven hours.
On Friday, RSF captured the city’s cattle market, prison and military base while broadcasting their assault and forcing their way into the city’s center.
On Sunday the military was successful in pushing the RSF further out of the city in a violent retaliation that led to shooting and shelling in the city’s residential areas.
The RSF fighters have been engaged in similar actions, guarding and surrounding the city for around 15 months with large trench fortifications This recent incident marked their 220th offensive and proved most successful.
The RSF was able to take control of the largest commercial area – the city’s livestock marketplace – which has closed for several months. They took videos of themselves throughout the conquered territories, posting them on social media.
Shalla Prison and the military’s Central Reserve Forces headquarters were also captured for some time. However, the army was able to remove them from all vital areas.
The city has been branded recently by the Norwegian Refugee Council as a death trap, with the president of the council saying, “We are hearing its horror stories and terror weekly shelling attacks on civilian infrastructure.”
Al Fasher is the capital of Northern Darfur, a region which has suffered from constant violence since the civil war began in 2023 in the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
Since the conflict began 150,000 people have been killed and 12 million have fled their homes and become refugees. The city has also had its communications cut off for the past few months.
This civil war twenty years after the Darfur Genocide led by Omar Al-Bashir in a massive attack against local civilians, which led to his imprisonment by the ICC in 2019.
The International Criminal Court has said this weekend that there are very “reasonable grounds” to believe that serious war crimes and crimes against humanity have occurred in the region. Within the civil war, the ICC and various other international actors believe that the RSF have carried out a genocide against the non-Arab population.
There are several refugee and displacement camps near to the city such as Zamzam camp on the city’s outskirts and Tawila near to the area. Around 379,000 people have moved to these areas for safety.
Both of these camps have reported horrific stories about their conditions, with reports of cholera and harsh weather conditions. There are no hospitals or medical personnel, and many have died due to these conditions.
This conflict has led to a massive escalation and destabilisation in the civil war.
