Siege in western Sudan forces civilians underground
An RSF siege on the city of EL-Fasher in western Sudan is forcing civilians to take shelter underground.
As reported by Arab World on March 16th, the city of EL-Fasher in the western Darfur region has been a hot bed of violence in the ongoing civil war in Sudan.
The RSF have intensified their siege on the battered city in western Sudan.
They have used drone strikes, gun fire and have cut off supply lines in to the city leading to a situation described by UN Secretary-General Anonio Guterres as a ‘crisis of staggering scale and brutality.”
Civilians have been forced to build rudimentary shelters out of metal sheets and wooden planks after having homes destroyed by RSF fire.
A 45 year old mother of five, Nafisa Malik dug a fox hole in order to try and protect her children from the oncoming fire.
She described the situation to reporters, saying that: “Time slows down here. We sit in darkness, listening, trying to guess when it’s over.”
But fighting in the city is unlikely to be over for some time as the RSF intensify their efforts.
EL-Fasher is the only major city still under army control in the Darfur region and therefore of immense value to both sides.
For the army it remains their only foothold in the region whereas for the RSF, seizing control would provide them with strategic autonomy in Darfur.
The RSF have made progress in the region in recent months, with Maghrebi reporting on December 23rd 2024 that they had retaken a key strategic base in North Darfur.
EL-Fasher has been their target ever since and has suffered the consequences as such.
A humanitarian research lab at Yale university has used satellite imaging to analyse the situation in the city.
It found destruction to infrastructure and fires near the airport, the market and to the east and south of the city.
The army faces an invidious decision.
If they continue to try and hold the city then the death and destruction will continue on possibly for months.
However Kholood Khair, a Sudanese political analyst insists that “losing it would be catastrophic.”
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