KHARTOUM: A strike by paramilitaries on El-Fasher, the last city in Sudan’s Darfur region not under their control, has killed at least 12 people, both the army and local activists said.
The deaths are the latest among tens of thousands killed during nearly two years of war between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and Sudan’s army.
They came on Wednesday, the same day Saudi Arabia and the United States called for the warring sides to resume peace talks.
“The militia bombarded the city of El-Fasher with heavy artillery, killing 12 people and wounding 17,” the army’s Sixth Infantry Division in El-Fasher said Wednesday.
The local resistance committee, a volunteer aid group, gave the same toll of 12 dead and 17 wounded for Wednesday’s attack.
Sudan’s war has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million.
Famine has been declared in parts of the country, including displacement camps around El-Fasher, and was likely to spread, according to a UN-backed assessment.
The RSF control most of Sudan’s vast western region of Darfur. They have besieged El-Fasher for months and fighting there has escalated.
On Wednesday the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA said conditions in Darfur are rapidly deteriorating.
“In North Darfur state, more than 4,000 people have been newly displaced in the past week alone due to escalating violence in El-Fasher, as well as in Zamzam displacement camp south of the city and other areas,” OCHA said on its website.
RSF also controls parts of Sudan’s south. The army retook the capital Khartoum in late March. It holds sway in the east and north, leaving Africa’s third-largest country essentially divided in two.
Early in the war, which began on April 15, 2023, the United States and Saudi Arabia conducted mediation but multiple ceasefires collapsed.
On Wednesday the US and Saudi foreign ministers met in Washington.
They “agreed that the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces must return to peace talks, protect civilians, open humanitarian corridors, and return to civilian governance,” a US State Department statement said following the meeting.
