As the conflict in Sudan shows no sign of ending, around 30 civilians and 17 soldiers have been killed in El-Fasher city.
According to Sudanese politician Minni Minnawi, the attackers allegedly want to exterminate the city. “This shows that the goal of those attacking el-Fasher is to exterminate the city.”
Meanwhile, this ongoing feud between leaders of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed tens of thousands of people since last April.
Moreover, around 9 million people have been displaced since the war, thus triggering looming famine and grave humanitarian crises.
The conflict that began in Khartoum has expanded to other regions such as Darfur, reigniting long-standing rivalries that hark back to the early 2000s.
So far, the RSF has taken the control of nearly all western sudanese cities. El-Faser is the only place, which is yet to fall in Darfur.
However, with RSF’s steady gains, it has now pushed neutral leaders like Minnawi and Jibril Ibrahim, to pick a side and they had declared their intention to join the war from SAF’s side in November last year.
Since then, the sudanese army is now maintaining its presence in these cities, as they are last stronghold of the forces, who are fighting against RSF.
As World Peace Foundation’s executive director Alex de Waal cautioned, the capture of El-Fashir could lead to widespread brutality against civilians. The city represents the final bastion of an internationally recognized government.
“It’s the last stronghold of the internationally recognized government…in Darfur. It’s also a place where the other armed groups that are allied with the government…are holed up. So if it were to fall to the RSF, not only would we see the kind of massive rampage and looting that we’ve seen elsewhere, but probably also (a) large-scale massacre of civilians.” said Alex de Waal.
