Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) pushed deeper into a vast displacement camp in El Fasher on Monday, three local sources said, as fierce fighting raged for control of the North Darfur capital amid conflicting claims of battlefield gains from both sides.
The advance was focused on the Abu Shouk camp, which is home to approximately 190,000 people. The sources told Sudan Tribune that the RSF now controls about half of the camp, having forcibly displaced residents, looted homes, and abducted around 30 people, including women and children.
The escalating clashes in El Fasher, the historic capital of the Darfur region, are drawing closer to strategic army positions, including the city’s airport and artillery headquarters.
An RSF field commander told Sudan Tribune his forces were advancing along three axes to capture the army’s 6th Infantry Division headquarters in the city centre. He said that troops on a southern front were fighting near El Fasher International Airport, while another force was tasked with neutralizing the army’s artillery command in the west.
The army’s artillery has played a key role in repelling previous RSF assaults on the city.
However, a spokesman for the joint force of armed groups fighting alongside the army denied the RSF had made any significant progress.
“El Fasher is fine, and the army and the joint force are steadfast,” spokesman Ahmed Hussein Mustafa told Sudan Tribune. “They have repelled all recent attacks and forced the Rapid Support to retreat.”
Mustafa said the city had endured its most intense bombardment of the war over the last 10 days, with 700 to 1,000 shells falling daily across the city and causing thousands of civilian casualties. He accused the RSF of using shelling and drones to cover for ground attacks that were ultimately repelled.
The intensifying conflict has triggered a dire humanitarian crisis in the besieged city. On Monday, the World Health Organization (WHO) condemned an attack on El Fasher South Hospital that it said killed one person and injured seven others.
Activists told Sudan Tribune that residents are resorting to grinding animal fodder and mixing it with scarce sorghum flour to survive. A sack of sorghum, a local staple, now costs 9 million Sudanese pounds (approx. $3,000), while a sack of fodder is more accessible at 160,000 pounds (approx. $53).
The prices of other basic goods have skyrocketed due to the risks associated with transportation. A kilogram of rice or wheat flour now sells for 160,000 pounds (approx. $53), and a 300-gram package of pasta costs 30,000 pounds (approx. $10).