The city of el-Fasher, the embattled capital of North Darfur, has become the latest flashpoint in Sudan’s spiraling civil conflict, as a drone strike on a bustling market claimed at least 15 lives and injured 12 others on Tuesday, September 23, 2025. Multiple sources, including aid workers and local activist groups, confirmed the strike was carried out by the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), whose campaign to seize control of the city has intensified in recent weeks.
According to The Associated Press, an aid worker with the Emergency Response Rooms (ERR) reported the casualties, relaying information from doctors and ERR team members on the ground. The attack, which occurred in the heart of a crowded market, left three of the wounded in critical condition, a medical worker at the local hospital told AFP. The aid worker and the medic both requested anonymity, citing fears of retribution from the RSF.
Activist networks and local resistance committees in el-Fasher, who have been documenting the violence and coordinating aid, described the drone strike as a “brutal attack that comes in a series of countless repeated massacres” by the RSF. In a statement posted on Facebook, the group accused the RSF of seeking to “bring the city to its knees and break the will of its residents.” These committees, made up of residents and activists, have become a crucial source of information as communications in the city have been severely disrupted.
This latest attack comes on the heels of another devastating RSF strike just days earlier. On Friday, September 19, at least 70 people, including worshippers and three medical personnel, were killed when a mosque in el-Fasher was bombed. According to the UN children’s agency, among the dead were 11 children aged six to 15. Local and international organizations have verified the incident, underscoring the relentless violence that has gripped the city.
The RSF, for its part, has not publicly acknowledged responsibility for the market strike. On its Telegram channel, the paramilitary group instead claimed its fighters were advancing in el-Fasher and evacuating “hundreds of civilians,” though it provided no evidence to support these assertions. The group’s silence on the attack has only fueled suspicions and deepened the sense of fear among residents.
El-Fasher is now the last major city in Darfur still under the control of the Sudanese army. Since May 2024, the RSF has besieged the city, waging what U.S. Africa envoy Massad Boulos described as its “fiercest assault yet.” The stakes are high: if el-Fasher were to fall, the RSF would gain control over all of Darfur’s population centers, consolidating its grip on the vast western region. The United Nations estimates that around half of the 260,000 civilians trapped in the city are children, cut off from nearly all external aid.
The humanitarian situation has deteriorated rapidly. Medical staff at el-Fasher hospital, struggling under a communications blackout, have reported running out of nearly all supplies. “The most painful thing is watching the wounded suffer in pain, and we don’t have the medicine to treat them,” one medic lamented to AFP, noting that staff had been reduced to using mosquito nets in place of gauze to bandage wounds. The city’s remaining residents face daily bombardment, dwindling food stocks, and a severe shortage of clean water.
Across Sudan, the war between the RSF and the regular army, which erupted in April 2023, has exacted a staggering toll. The World Health Organization estimates that at least 40,000 people have been killed and up to 12 million displaced. Over 24 million people are now acutely food insecure, according to the World Food Program, as the conflict has disrupted agriculture, trade, and humanitarian deliveries.
Compounding the crisis, a cholera outbreak has swept through the country. The UN health agency reported on Tuesday that more than 3,000 people have died from cholera in the last 14 months, with cases now detected in all 18 states of Sudan since the outbreak was declared in July 2024. Aid organizations warn that the dire situation in Darfur, exacerbated by ongoing violence, is making it nearly impossible to contain the spread of disease or provide adequate healthcare.
Both sides in the civil war have been accused of grave human rights violations. The UN and various human rights watchdogs have documented atrocities by the RSF and its allies against non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur, including the Zaghawa, who make up the bulk of fighters in the Joint Forces alliance supporting the army in el-Fasher. These abuses include ethnic cleansing, extrajudicial killings, and sexual violence against civilians, including children. The military, too, has faced accusations of abuses, highlighting the brutal nature of the conflict.
In the midst of this chaos, international actors are scrambling to respond. U.S. envoy Boulos expressed cautious optimism that humanitarian aid might soon reach el-Fasher. “Hopefully, in the coming few days, we will start seeing the flow of this much-needed aid,” he said, noting that discussions with the RSF had resulted in an agreement to allow aid convoys into the city. Whether this promise will materialize remains to be seen, as previous attempts to secure humanitarian access have faltered amid ongoing hostilities.
The resistance committees and local aid workers continue to plead for international attention and intervention. As the ERR aid worker told The Associated Press, the city is enduring “a never-ending series of daily massacres” that threaten to erase its population and spirit. The relentless violence, coupled with disease and hunger, has created conditions that many observers have likened to a humanitarian catastrophe.
For the people of el-Fasher, the future remains deeply uncertain. With the RSF tightening its siege and the army struggling to hold its last foothold in Darfur, the city’s residents are left to endure bombardment, deprivation, and fear. As one medic put it, “We are just hoping for help to arrive before it is too late.”
The events unfolding in el-Fasher are a stark reminder of the human cost of Sudan’s civil war—a crisis that, despite its enormity, continues to unfold largely out of sight of the world. With each passing day, the need for urgent humanitarian intervention grows more acute, even as the violence shows little sign of abating.