At least 18 people were killed Tuesday during an incursion by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces into the besieged Darfur city of El-Fasher, medical sources said.
The North Darfur state capital is the last major city in the vast western region still under government control, more than two years into the war between the regular army and the RSF.
The death toll cited by the two medical sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, only accounts for victims brought to the Sud and El-Fasher hospitals.
An unknown number of others are believed to have been buried mainly in the southern sector of the Abu Shouk displacement camp on the city’s outskirts, the sources said.
A resistance committee, one of hundreds of grassroots groups documenting atrocities in the war, said RSF fighters had been advancing since Monday from the city’s north, where attacks were ongoing.
“Several civilians were killed in their homes, and others were detained under mysterious circumstances,” the committee said.
It reported heavy clashes, intense shelling and the continued presence of drones over El-Fasher for a second consecutive day.
“RSF forces have installed artillery and defensive positions throughout the Abu Shouk camp,” a witness trying to leave the state capital told AFP.
Another witness said the army and its allies were currently in the military headquarters.
“If the RSF manages to take control of the headquarters, it could mean complete control of the city,” said Sudan expert Mohaned Elnour of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.
“We could expect a terrible catastrophe, where horrific crimes could be committed,” he added.
El-Fasher, under RSF siege for more than 500 days, is home to around 260,000 civilians, half of them children, the United Nations says.
Humanitarian aid is virtually nonexistent.
At a news conference Tuesday organised by the NGO Avaaz, expert Shayna Lewis said the city had been under continuous bombardment since around an hour before dawn.
In a statement, the Sudanese army said it had repelled RSF attacks during a counter-offensive launched at daybreak.
AFP was unable to independently verify the reports due to the area’s isolation and telecommunications outages.
The war in Sudan, which began in April 2023, has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions both within the country and across its borders.
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© Agence France-Presse
