Darfur has fallen. In recent days Sudan’s Army has withdrawn from the city of El Fasher, in the west of the Darfur region, after a bloody siege since April 2024 that has seen tens of thousands of civilians trapped, enduring famine, daily bombardment and massacres. It leaves the brutal Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary in control of the huge province – it now rules the western and southwestern regions of Sudan, and the army has the east and the capital, Khartoum.
The army say it has left in order to spare civilian casualties in El Fasher and the huge surrounding camps for the displaced. But credible reports of mass executions are already emerging
Control of the city and of Darfur is a major victory for the RSF and potentially a key turning point in the civil war between two rival generals and factions of the army that has raged since 2023. Partition of the country is now a real possibility.
More than 150,000 people have been killed and more than 14 million displaced due to the fighting with millions plunged into famine. Both the RSF and the Sudanese Army are accused of war crimes and human rights violations. Both are backed by foreign powers supplying the weapons that fuel the largely forgotten war that in terms of deaths surpasses both Gaza and Ukraine.
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When another Darfur city, El Geneina, fell in 2023 to the RSF, the UN estimated the civilian death toll at 15,000 – with the paramilitaries targeting the non-Arab population. Both the UN and African Union have expressed concern at another wave of ethnic killings of civilians in El Fasher.
Thousands are now fleeing the city. Residents say that food has completely run out. Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab has reported that satellite imagery shows “piles of bodies executed en masse”. The UN said there were credible reports of “summary executions.”
Attempts are underway, with the involvement of the US, to try to broker a ceasefire. But all the signs are that this war – receiving limited international attention partly due to the Ukraine and Gaza – has entered another brutal phase.
