Eight civilians were killed when Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) bombed a bunker sheltering dozens of people in the besieged city of El-Fasher, a doctor reported to AFP on Thursday.The doctor, speaking anonymously from El-Fasher Teaching Hospital, one of the city’s last functioning medical facilities, said the RSF used a drone to target the shelter late Tuesday night. Health workers in the area have faced repeated threats and rely on satellite internet to communicate due to the ongoing communications blackout.El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, is the only major city in the Darfur region not under RSF control, despite being under siege since May last year. The attack is part of the RSF’s intensified campaign to seize the city after it lost control of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, to the army in March.An eyewitness confirmed to AFP that the bombed shelter was protecting dozens of people. El-Fasher’s resistance committee reported continued RSF artillery attacks throughout Wednesday.The war between the RSF and the Sudanese army, which began in April 2023, has devastated Sudan. Tens of thousands have been killed, and the country faces the world’s worst hunger and displacement crisis. Most of Darfur is now controlled by the RSF, with media and communication access heavily restricted.El-Fasher’s estimated one million residents are struggling to survive with almost no access to food, water, or healthcare. Critical infrastructure has collapsed due to fuel shortages and lack of maintenance. The United Nations recently reported that nearly 40 per cent of children under five in El-Fasher suffer from acute malnutrition, with 11 per cent in severe condition.Although a formal famine declaration is not possible due to limited data, aid organisations warn that starvation is widespread. Since the start of the conflict, around 780,000 people have been displaced from El-Fasher and nearby camps, including 500,000 in April and May alone during a series of RSF assaults.Sudan now faces the largest internal displacement crisis in the world, with 10 million people uprooted, nearly 20 per cent of them in North Darfur.
