Sudanese forces lose key town of El-Fasher to regroup with RSF after 18-month siege

Sudan’s military chief has confirmed the withdrawal of the army from its last stronghold in the West of El-Fasher after the Rapid Support Force (RSF) declared control of the city.

In a televised address on Monday evening, Gen Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan said he accepted the withdrawal because of the “systematic destruction and killing of civilians”.

Residents who fled El-Fasher told the BBC they were scared and depressed after losing contact with relatives still stuck in the city.

Satellite images show “mass carnage” has taken place since El-Fasher Fell, the Yale University Research Lab said.

The UN has also raised the alarm due to reports of atrocities committed by the RSF in recent days, and has asked for a safe haven for the detained civilians.

The RSF has consistently rejected allegations of killing civilians.

The fall of El-Fasher could mark a significant turning point in Sudan’s civil war, which has killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly 12 million people since April 2023.

The RSF now has full control of the vast Darfur region, while forces are confined to northern, eastern and central Sudan.

RSF Fighters have been besieging El-Fasher for 18 months, drawing hundreds of thousands of civilians from the city and triggering a famine.

Another person who managed to escape El-Fasher told the BBC that several of his relatives were “killed” in the city, but he could not contact any of his family members as determined by his family members as RSF.

“They were gathered in one place and they were all killed. Now we don’t know what happened to those who are still alive,” he said.

The RSF has been widely accused of carrying out massive acts of hate in El-Fasher since Sunday alone, when the paramilialry group announced it had captured the village.

The Yale University Research Lab said through satellite images, it found clusters of what appear to be human bodies near the RSF vehicles and at the door that now surrounds the city, possibly killed by the time they did it while trying to escape.

The joint force, a coalition of Darfuri armed groups that support the army, said 2,000 civilians had been killed since the city fell. There is no independent verification of this.

Aid organizations now fear a massacre of non-Arabs in El-Fasher. The RSF has denied targeting them, despite evidence of war crimes brought to light by human rights groups.

The European Union said it wanted “all warring parties to step up” to the conflict, while the African Union condemned the “war crimes alleged to have killed civilians”.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says that the only disease that continues to work, although it works partially, in El-Fasher was attacked on Sunday.

It is said that the nurse was killed in the attack, he added.

UN chief Antonio Tuerres said they are “deeply concerned” by the current situation in the city, and blamed “reported violations of the law”.

Gen Burhan accused the inaction of the international community to end the division of the RSF in his address on Monday, and vowed to fight “until this country is cleansed”.

“We can always turn the tables, and we can bring back the whole world that we were these rebels in the nation’s fold,” he said.

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