Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launched a major attack on el-Fasher in North Darfur a day after the UN Security Council demanded the militia halt its weeks-long siege of the city.
Sudan’s Armed Forces “aborted the attack and inflicted huge losses” with “hundreds” of dead and wounded in the failed RSF assault, it said in a statement.
Among those killed was a senior RSF commander, Ali Yagoub Gibril, and the attackers “fled from the battlefield”, it added.
No response from RSF was immediately available.
The conflict in Sudan broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, which is loyal to General Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo.
The violence has killed at least 14,000 people and displaced more than 10 million others, according to UN estimates. The UN and human rights groups have said they fear ethnic cleansing if RSF captures el-Fasher, a city of 1.8 million people and the last army stronghold in the Darfur region.
The war has created the worst humanitarian situation in the world, with an estimated 756,000 people in Sudan facing “catastrophic food shortages” by September.
Many Sudanese have joined the armed forces to fight back against the rampaging RSF.
Musa Adam was displaced from his city of Nyala in South Darfur. He told Al Jazeera the horrors committed by RSF soldiers made him join the SAF effort against the militia.
Source: Al Jazeera
