Sudan army base in besieged El Fasher falls to rival militia

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Militiamen of the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces have overrun the army’s last base in the Darfur region, giving them control over most of the besieged city of El Fasher and a hold over western Sudan.

El Fasher has been under siege since April last year, with tens of thousands of civilians trapped inside enduring famine, daily bombardment and massacres. The RSF militia, led by renegade general Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, has been tightening its stranglehold over the city and surrounding camps for the displaced.    

Residents of El Fasher said in recent days that food had completely run out, even the animal feed that many people have survived on.

In a statement on Sunday, the RSF said they had “taken full control” of the Sudan Armed Forces base in the city. In videos posted on social media, RSF fighters were seen celebrating inside the headquarters. Aerial footage showed thousands of people fleeing across the surrounding scrub.

The SAF did not immediately comment on the takeover, although people within the city said resistance was continuing in some areas.

A former government minister in touch with El Fasher said there was continued resistance in some parts of the city, but given the number of RSF fighters and their control of supply lines, it would be a matter of days before the militia gained complete control. He anticipated a bloody end to the siege.

The capture of El Fasher would represent a significant victory for the RSF, which has been battling — with the alleged help of weapons and mercenaries supplied by the United Arab Emirates — to drive the SAF and allied former rebel groups from their last stronghold in the west of Sudan.

The UAE denies involvement in the war.

Control of all of Darfur will give Hemedti, who has been accused of genocide by the US, greater leverage over Sudan’s future, after his fighters were driven from much of eastern and central Sudan, including the capital Khartoum, earlier this year. But the SAF’s defeat also risks consolidating the de facto partition of the country.

Aladdin Nugud, spokesman for the parallel government set up in Darfur by Hemedti, announced the “complete liberation of El Fasher” and said this represented “a new beginning towards a Sudan where comprehensive peace, true justice and equality prevail”.

Sunday’s fighting came hours after Massad Boulos, US President Donald Trump’s senior adviser on Arab and African affairs, met officials from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE in a renewed bid to secure a ceasefire with regional backing.

Boulos reiterated the commitment of the group, known as the quad, to securing an “urgent humanitarian truce, achieving a permanent ceasefire, halting external support and advancing a transition to civilian governance”.

As well as persistently raising the alarm about the growing numbers of people starving to death in El Fasher, rights groups and aid agencies have warned for months of the risk of a bloodbath should the RSF capture the city.

RSF officials said on Sunday that they were co-ordinating with Hemedti’s government to facilitate the return of displaced people and secure humanitarian aid.