Fighting has intensified in Sudan’s besieged city of el-Fasher in North Darfur, as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group claimed it had captured a government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) base seen as their last stronghold in the western region.
An RSF spokesperson said in a statement on Sunday that its forces “managed to liberate the 6th Division in el-Fasher, breaking the back of the army and its allies by establishing full control over this strategic military base”.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 items- list 1 of 3Control, choke points: The battle lines in southern Sudan
- list 2 of 3Drone attack in Sudan threatens Khartoum airport’s reopening: Reports
- list 3 of 3Sudan’s Khartoum targeted by RSF drones for third day after airport reopens
He called the development a significant turning point and “a step on the path to building a new state that all Sudanese will participate in establishing according to their aspirations for freedom, peace, and justice”.
A video posted by the RSF showed its soldiers cheering in front of a sign for the SAF’s Sixth Infantry base.
The Reuters news agency said it was able to verify the location but not the date.
Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, reporting from Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, said the RSF takeover of the SAF base in el-Fasher comes after months of siege and days of heavy fighting.
The RSF has been laying siege to el-Fasher for the past 18 months as it fought the Sudanese army and allied former rebels and local fighters. It has targeted civilians in frequent drone and artillery attacks, while the siege has caused acute suffering and spread starvation in the city, where 250,000 people remain under fire.
The SAF did not immediately give a statement on its current position.
Control of el-Fasher
Due to the siege, “the army had difficulty resupplying and reenforcing its soldiers and forces” at the military base, said Morgan, adding that there are layers to the unfolding situation.
“What we understand from military sources is that when the RSF took over the army division there, SAF forces themselves were not present inside the base itself,” she added.
“They had withdrawn and rebased themselves around the city, so technically, while the RSF does control the infantry division that used to belong to the Sudanese army there, it does not have full control of the city of el-Fasher itself.”
Capturing el-Fasher would be a significant military and political victory for the RSF, and could hasten a physical split of the country by enabling the paramilitary group to consolidate its control over the vast Darfur region, which it has identified as the base for a parallel government established this summer.
Justin Lynch, the managing director of the Conflict Insights Group, told Al Jazeera that the RSF’s siege on el-Fasher is part of a strategy to take over all of Darfur.
“What they want to say is claim that they represent all of Darfur in negotiations, so that during the talks that are happening now, they can have a much better claim and a much better negotiating position,” Lynch told Al Jazeera from Nairobi.
“They’ve been having a siege for the past 18 months, and so, with the fall of the army barracks, it looks destined that the city of el-Fasher is going to fall,” he said.
Activists have long warned that an RSF takeover of the city would also lead to ethnic attacks, as seen after the capture of the Zamzam camp to the south.
Last week, the RSF said it was facilitating the exit of civilians and surrendered fighters from el-Fasher, but those who have left have reported robberies, sexual assaults, and killings by RSF soldiers on the way.
A United Nations-mandated mission said last month that the RSF had committed multiple crimes against humanity in the siege of el-Fasher. SAF has also been accused of atrocities.
Four UN agencies warned this week that thousands of children face imminent death as they remain cut off from food and healthcare.
UN expert Radhouane Nouicer raised concerns this week about intensifying drone attacks by both sides. RSF attacks on power infrastructure on Tuesday knocked out electricity across multiple cities and injured six workers.
For a fourth consecutive day on Friday, RSF drones targeted Khartoum International airport, which the army had hoped to reopen after retaking the capital in March. The reopening has been postponed as a result.
The conflict, which began in April 2023, has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 12 million and left 30 million in need of aid, making it the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
In recent months, United States President Donald Trump has repeatedly promised to intensify efforts to end the war in Sudan. But with his foreign policy focus zeroed in on shoring up a fragile Gaza ceasefire and finding a way to reach any type of ceasefire in Russia’s war in Ukraine, as well as trade deals, Sudan has not been a priority.