Sudan's RSF intensifies attacks on el-Fasher as displaced face starvation
Since the weekend, Sudan's Rapid Support Forces militia has stepped up attacks on North Darfur’s besieged capital, el-Fasher.
Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have reportedly seized control of roughly half of the Abu Shouk displacement camp and intensified attacks on the nearby city of el-Fasher, escalating a crisis that has placed hundreds of thousands at risk of starvation.
On Tuesday, the Sudan Tribune reported that the RSF now controls half of the Abu Shouk camp, where an estimated 200,000 displaced people reside. The group launched a new set of attacks over the weekend, during which they reportedly forcibly displaced residents of 11 blocks of the camp, forcing them to flee for el-Fasher and surrounding areas.
Abu Shouk, which lies just around 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) from the northwestern corner of el-Fasher, has been attacked multiple times in recent months, particularly since the Sudanese Armed Forces took back the capital Khartoum from the RSF in March. El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, is the last major city in the Darfur region held by the SAF and has been under siege for over a year. After the SAF retook Khartoum, the RSF escalated its campaign in Darfur, tightening its grip on el-Fasher and surrounding camps and blocking nearly all humanitarian access, according to the UN.
The RSF has also targeted the city of el-Fasher itself. On Saturday morning, local news outlets reported renewed shelling on the city. The Sudan Doctors Network said on Saturday that artillery fire had hit the city’s South Hospital, injuring at least seven people and killing one.
