Sudan’s army kills top militant commander in north Darfur
As Sudan’s civil war engulfs the north Darfur region, its army continues to count strategic gains against rebel forces amid the country’s worsening humanitarian crisis.
The Sudanese army claimed on June 14th to have killed a senior Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander Ali Yacoub Gibril during a battle in the besieged north Darfur city of Al-Fashir, according to Reuters.
Gibril was a leading RSF commander in Al-Fashir, the last major city in Sudan’s north Darfur region.
The army gave a statement claiming Yacoub was killed as an RSF attack was repelled by its troops and army-aligned Arab rebel groups.
There was no immediate comment from the RSF.
War between the army and the RSF erupted over conditions for a transition to democracy in mid-April, 2023. Breaking out in the capital Khartoum, fighting soon spread across the country.
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Al-Fashir has been besieged for weeks which the UN, which called for a halt to the siege on June 13th and warned may trigger widespread intercommunal violence.
On June 10th, medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) announced that El Fashir’s last remaining hospital was closed after an RSF attack, according to The Guardian.
“On Saturday, MSF and the ministry of health suspended all activities in South Hospital, El Fasher, North Darfur, after RSF soldiers stormed the facility, opened fire and looted it, including stealing an MSF ambulance,” MSF stated in a June 9th X post.
The Sudan conflict has led to the world’s worst displacement crisis, renewed ethnic violence in the Darfur region, and a surge in cases of extreme hunger.
Reuters / The Guardian
