Latest news with #ElFasher
Al Arabiya
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Paramilitary shelling on camp kills eight in Sudan's Darfur: Rescuers
Paramilitary forces shelled a displacement camp in Sudan's Darfur region on Thursday, killing eight civilians and injuring others, a local rescue group said. The bombardment hit Abu Shouk camp, which hosts tens of thousands of displaced people on the outskirts of El Fasher, the besieged capital of North Darfur. El-Fasher remains the last major stronghold in Sudan's western Darfur region not under the control of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who have been at war with the regular army since April 2023. 'The Abu Shouk camp witnessed heavy artillery bombardment by the RSF... killing eight people,' the camp's Emergency Response Room said in a statement. In recent weeks, El-Fasher, which has been under paramilitary siege since last year, has been locked in intense fighting between warring sides in a region also gripped by famine. Thursday's offensive comes just days after a series of attacks by the RSF targeted another battleground region of Sudan. More than 450 people, including 35 children, were killed in several villages of North Kordofan, southwest of the capital Khartoum, according to a statement released this week by the UN's children agency. 'No child should ever experience such horrors,' said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. 'Violence against children is unconscionable and must end now.' On Sunday, the RSF claimed to have killed more than 470 army personnel near the town of El-Obeid, also in North Kordofan, in a statement posted to its Telegram channel. Independent verification of casualties in Sudan remains difficult due to restricted access to its conflict zones. Now in its third year, the conflict has killed tens of thousands and forced millions to flee, creating what the United Nations describes as the world's largest displacement crisis. In December last year, famine was officially declared in three displacement camps near El-Fasher, namely Zamzam, Abu Shouk and Al-Salam, according to the UN. Since the Sudanese army regained control of the capital Khartoum in March, the RSF has shifted its operations westward, focusing on Darfur and Kordofan in a bid to consolidate territorial gains. In April, RSF fighters seized the Zamzam displacement camp, located near Abu Shouk. The assault forced nearly 400,000 people to flee, according to UN figures, effectively emptying one of the country's largest camps for the displaced. Sudanese analyst Mohaned el-Nour told AFP the RSF aims to redefine its role in the conflict. 'Their goal is no longer to be seen as a militia, but as an alternative government in western Sudan, undermining the legitimacy of the authorities in Port Sudan.' He added that the recent surge in violence in North Kordofan was likely intended to divert the army's attention from El Fasher, where the military is trying 'at all costs' to maintain.
Asharq Al-Awsat
13-07-2025
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Sudanese Army Recaptures Positions from RSF in El Fasher
The Sudanese army carried out a surprise military operation in the early hours of Saturday in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, regaining several positions in the city's far southwest that it had previously abandoned to advancing Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Military sources reported that calm returned to El Fasher after intense clashes on Friday between the army and RSF fighters, who attempted a major offensive to deepen their hold inside the city. In a statement, the army said its Sixth Infantry Division successfully repelled a fresh RSF attack, inflicting heavy losses in personnel and equipment, and restored control over all frontline areas. RSF militants had infiltrated southern neighborhoods, seizing the Central Security Reserve headquarters and the Shalla prison. According to army sources, these forces were pushed back through ground combat supported by extensive drone strikes, forcing them to retreat to their original positions. The sources confirmed there were no significant breakthroughs or territorial gains by the RSF following the operation. In a statement on Saturday, Prime Minister Kamel Idris expressed 'deep anger, pain, and responsibility' over the worsening humanitarian disaster in El Fasher. He condemned the 'suffocating and inhumane siege imposed by the RSF militia,' describing it as 'one of the most brutal cases of collective extortion and systematic starvation in recent history.' Idris vowed that the government would not stand idly by in the face of this 'atrocious' crime and pledged to use all political, diplomatic, and humanitarian means to break the siege and ensure urgent aid reaches civilians trapped in El Fasher amid widespread starvation and international silence. He called on United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, along with international and humanitarian organizations, to act immediately to pressure the militia to open humanitarian corridors and end the use of starvation as a weapon against civilians. The prime minister highlighted the RSF's refusal to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 2736, which demands lifting the siege on El Fasher, and their rejection of UN calls for a humanitarian ceasefire. He held the militia responsible for obstructing aid and accountable for the ongoing starvation and terror inflicted on civilians. Idris warned against silence over these crimes, including the killing of civilians fleeing the siege and bombardments. He also cited the systematic destruction of hospitals by RSF suicide drone and strategic attacks, threatening the lives of millions of innocent civilians. 'What is happening in El Fasher is a major crime committed in full view and hearing of the world,' he said, urging the international community to move beyond lukewarm statements to real action and pressure on those besieging, starving, and attacking civilians. The RSF continues to attempt to seize the city and its army base, the last stronghold of government forces across all Darfur states. Military sources said defenders repelled the assault and inflicted heavy casualties on the attackers. The RSF has maintained a tight siege on El Fasher since May 2024, blocking all roads and supply routes and preventing humanitarian aid from entering, resulting in hundreds of civilian deaths from starvation and medical shortages.
Al Arabiya
13-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Sudanese army battles RSF assault on Darfur city
The Sudanese army was locked in heavy fighting on Saturday with paramilitaries who had advanced into the battleground Darfur city of El-Fasher the previous day, a military source said. Residents said they were woken before dawn by heavy exchanges of machine-gun fire on the streets of the city of well over a million which has been under siege by the paramilitaries since May last year. Regular army troops took back several key sites in the south and west of the city which the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) had captured on Friday, inflicting heavy losses on the paramilitaries, the military source said. They included Shala prison and the headquarters of the Central Reserve Police, a militarized force trained for combat. But a source in the RSF said both sites remained under the full control of the paramilitaries, along with the city's livestock market. The RSF had circulated videos late on Friday purporting to show its fighters in control of the sites, but AFP was unable to verify their authenticity. El-Fasher is the last major city in Darfur still under the army's control and has come under renewed attack by the paramilitaries this year since they lost control of the capital Khartoum. Salah Issa, who lives in the central neighborhood of Awlad al-Rif, said that clashes had erupted at 3 am (0100 GMT). 'Yesterday's (Friday's) attack came from the south and west, and today they moved on the airport,' also in the west of the city, he said. Another witness, Mohieddine Abdel Rahman, said the fighting had been at close quarters, using machine guns. Activists said the renewed assault on the city had begun with heavy shelling on Tuesday evening, which continued all day Wednesday. Eight civilians were killed when a RSF drone strike hit a bomb shelter, a doctor at El-Fasher Teaching Hospital told AFP on Thursday. Comprehensive casualty tolls are almost impossible to establish. The city is gripped by a communications blackout which only those with satellite internet connections can circumvent and nearly all health facilities have been forced to shut due to fighting. The United Nations has repeatedly warned of the plight of the city's trapped civilians, who are forced to seek shelter in makeshift bunkers dug in courtyards and in front of houses. Nationwide ten of thousands of people have been killed since the war erupted in April 2023 and more than 14 million driven from their homes.
Al Bawaba
13-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Bawaba
RSF controls major areas in El Fasher city in Sudan
Published July 13th, 2025 - 05:58 GMT ALBAWABA - The Sudanese army announced repelling a new attack by the Rapid Support Forces on El Fasher on Saturday, according to a military source quoted by AFP. The announcement came after the Rapid Support Forces said it took control over several key areas in the city located in western Sudan on Saturday. It is worth noting that El Fasher is the only major city not controlled by the Rapid Support Forces in the Darfur Region, which has been under siege for more than a year amid its war with the army since April 2023. The military source reported that the Sudanese army, supported by allied armed factions, recaptured Shalla Prison and the Central Reserve Police headquarters in the southwest of the city, inflicting "heavy losses" on the Rapid Support Forces. Meanwhile, a source in the RSF told AFP that the latter had been in complete control of these same sites since Friday, in addition to the livestock market located south of El Fasher. © 2000 - 2025 Al Bawaba (
Arab News
11-07-2025
- Health
- Arab News
Child malnutrition doubles in battleground Sudan state
PORT SUDAN: The number of severely malnourished children in Sudan's battleground state of North Darfur has doubled since last year, the UN children's agency said on Friday. Since April 2023, war between Sudan's regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has killed tens of thousands of people and driven over 14 million from their homes. North Darfur state and its besieged capital El-Fasher have been particularly badly hit, with famine declared last year in three vast displacement camps outside the city UNICEF said more than 40,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition in North Darfur were admitted for treatment between January and May this year — twice as many as during the same period last year. In a statement on Friday, UNICEF said more than 40,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition in North Darfur were admitted for treatment between January and May this year — twice as many as during the same period last year. 'Children in Darfur are being starved by conflict and cut off from the very aid that could save them,' said UNICEF's Sudan representative, Sheldon Yett. Across the five Darfur states, cases of severe acute malnutrition rose by 46 percent in the first five months of the year compared to the same period in 2024. The battle for El-Fasher — the last major city in Darfur still under army control — has intensified in recent months. Hospitals have been hit by shelling, aid convoys attacked and access for humanitarian aid is now almost entirely blocked. The UN said this week that nearly 40 percent of children under five in El-Fasher were suffering from acute malnutrition, including 11 percent with severe acute malnutrition. UNICEF also reported significant rises in malnutrition in other recent battlegrounds. Severe acute malnutrition rose by over 70 percent in neighboring North Kordofan state, by 174 percent in the capital Khartoum and nearly seven-fold in the central state of Al-Jazira. Khartoum and Al-Jazira were recaptured by the army earlier this year, but the country remains effectively split. The army holds the east, north and center while the RSF controls nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south.
