Sudan’s army loses the key town of el-Fasher to its rival RSF paramilitary force

Sudan’s military chief confirmed the army’s withdrawal from its last western stronghold of el-Fasher after the paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF) declared control of the city.

In a televised address on Monday evening, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said he had approved the withdrawal in response to the “systematic destruction and killing of civilians”.

He said he had agreed with local leaders to “leave and go to a safe place to protect the remaining citizens and the rest of the city from destruction.”

The UN raised the alarm over reports of atrocities committed by the RSF in recent days and called for the safe passage of trapped civilians.

RSF has consistently denied 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 over the vast Darfur region, while the army is confined to the north, east and center of Sudan.

The RSF have been besieging El Fasher for 18 months, trapping hundreds of thousands of civilians in the city and triggering a famine crisis.

The RSF has been widely accused of carrying out large-scale atrocities in el-Fasher only since Sunday, when the paramilitary group announced it had captured the town.

According to Yale University’s Laboratory for Humanitarian Studies, satellite images show “evidence of mass killings.”

Investigators have found clusters of what appear to be human bodies near RSF vehicles and next to the 57km earthen wall that now surrounds the city, suggesting civilians may have been executed as they tried to escape.

The Joint Forces, an alliance of Darfuri armed groups backing the army, said 2,000 civilians had been killed since the town fell. There is no independent confirmation of this.

Aid agencies now fear a massacre of non-Arab ethnic groups remaining in el-Fasher. RSF has denied targeting them, despite evidence of war crimes presented by the UN and human rights groups.

On Monday, UN chief Antonio Guterres said he was “gravely concerned” about the situation in the city and condemned the reported “violations of international humanitarian law”.

General Burhan condemned the inaction of the international community to end the violations in his address on Monday and vowed to fight “until this land is cleansed”.

“We can turn things around every time, and we can return any land defiled by these traitors to the bosom of the nation,” he said.