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Paramilitaries killed 57 civilians in an attack on North Darfur’s besieged capital, El-Fasher, and a nearby famine-stricken camp on Friday, activists reported, as the battle for control of Sudan’s western region intensifies.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), engaged in a war with the army since April 2023, launched a significant assault on El-Fasher, using heavy artillery, sniper fire, and suicide drones from the east and northeast, according to the local resistance committee, a volunteer aid group.
“By 5:00 pm (local time), 32 people had been killed in the city, including four women and ten children aged between one and five,” the group stated, adding that at least 17 others were injured and taken to hospital.
Earlier, RSF fighters attacked the Zamzam displacement camp near El-Fasher, killing 25 civilians, including women, children, and elderly residents, the local committee reported.
Zamzam, along with other densely populated camps for displaced people around El-Fasher, has suffered greatly during nearly two years of fighting.
El-Fasher is the only state capital still under army control in Darfur, making it a strategically significant target for the RSF in their quest for complete control of the west.
Witnesses reported seeing RSF combat vehicles entering the Zamzam camp under heavy gunfire cover.
Friday’s assault followed RSF shelling of the Abu Shouk camp near El-Fasher on Thursday, which left at least 15 people dead and 25 wounded, according to rescuers.
Three residents of El-Fasher told AFP that the RSF attacked the city from the east, south, and west on Friday, after bombarding it with heavy artillery and rockets. They spoke on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.
Drones were also seen attacking central El-Fasher, witnesses said. The paramilitaries have escalated efforts to secure Darfur since losing control of the capital, Khartoum, last month.
Zamzam was the first area in Sudan where a UN-backed assessment declared famine last year. In December, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification reported that famine had spread to two nearby camps – Abu Shouk and Al Salam – as well as parts of the country’s south.
The conflict between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, erupted in April 2023. The fighting has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 12 million people.
While the army recaptured Khartoum late last month, the country remains divided. The army controls the east and north, while the RSF holds most of Darfur and parts of the south.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk warned on Friday of devastating consequences for civilians as the conflict nears its third year.
“Two years of this brutal and senseless conflict must serve as a wake-up call for the parties to lay down their weapons and for the international community to take action,” he said. “Sudan must not continue down this destructive path.”
