Port Sudan (Sudan) (AFP) – The Sudanese army repelled an attack by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on El Fasher on Saturday, a military source confirmed to AFP, after the RSF announced it had seized several key areas in the city located in western Sudan.
El Fasher is the only major city in the Darfur region not under RSF control, and it has been under siege by the group for more than a year amid its war with the army since April 2023.
The RSF intensified its assault on El Fasher starting Tuesday evening.
According to the military source, the army, supported by allied armed factions, regained control of Shala Prison and the Central Reserve Police headquarters in the southwest of the city, inflicting “heavy losses” on the RSF.
Conversely, an RSF source told AFP that the RSF has had full control over these same locations since Friday, in addition to the livestock market in southern El Fasher.
Salah Issa, a resident of the Awlad Alreef neighborhood in central El Fasher, said the RSF began its attack on Friday from the southwest of the city, advancing toward the airport.
Another witness, Mohyeddin Abdel Rahman, told AFP that RSF fighters launched an assault using machine guns, whereas they usually employ heavy artillery shelling to target positions in the city.
On Friday evening, the RSF published videos showing some of its fighters claiming control over several sites in the southwest of the city. AFP was unable to independently verify the footage.
The RSF has intensified its offensive on El Fasher since Tuesday evening. According to local activists, the city was subjected to artillery bombardment throughout Wednesday.
At least eight people were killed on Tuesday night and Wednesday in an RSF raid targeting a civilian shelter, according to a medical source.
AFP could not independently verify the casualty numbers in the city, where telephone lines and internet communications have been severely disrupted.
Residents of El Fasher are suffering from acute shortages of food, water, and healthcare.
Since losing the capital Khartoum, which was taken by the army in March, and in an attempt to assert full control over the Darfur region, the RSF has intensified attacks on El Fasher and surrounding displacement camps, where famine has been declared.
The war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands, displaced 13 million people, and caused famine in several parts of the country.
