Sudan’s Darfur region has once again become the epicenter of brutal violence, as the war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) intensifies, bringing new horrors to cities already battered by more than a year of siege and deprivation. Over the weekend, the city of El-Fasher, the last major urban stronghold in western Darfur still held by the army, was rocked by the RSF’s fiercest offensive to date, while a deadly army drone strike in Nyala added to the mounting civilian toll.
According to France 24, the RSF unleashed a barrage of artillery and ground attacks on El-Fasher on August 31, killing at least seven people and wounding 71 more. The medical source who reported the casualties warned that the true toll was likely higher, as many of the wounded were unable to reach the city’s few remaining hospitals due to the intensity of the strikes. Of those injured, 22 were in critical condition, most suffering from shrapnel wounds.
Local activists described the attack as targeting several neighborhoods in El-Fasher’s west, particularly near the airport—a key strategic location that RSF forces have repeatedly tried to seize. The city’s airport and the famine-stricken Abu Shouk displacement camp were among the areas hardest hit. The RSF’s escalation comes after months of siege, with El-Fasher suffering severe shortages of food and water for over a year, as reported by AFP.
El-Fasher’s suffering is compounded by the repeated bombardment of its remaining hospitals and the recent capture of the local police headquarters by RSF fighters. The city, with a population estimated by the United Nations at 300,000, has become the most violent front line in the war that erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the RSF. The humanitarian situation is dire: famine was declared in three displacement camps around El-Fasher last year, and the UN warned that famine could spread to the city itself by May 2025. Nearly 40 percent of children under five are acutely malnourished, with 11 percent severely so. Many residents, cut off from aid, have resorted to eating animal fodder, and desperate attempts to escape the city often end in death from exposure, starvation, or violence.
Satellite imagery analyzed by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab, cited by France 24 and International Business Times, revealed that the RSF has constructed more than 31 kilometers of berms—raised earth barriers—around El-Fasher, “creating a literal kill box” within the city. Nathaniel Raymond, the lab’s executive director, explained that the RSF has now confined the Sudanese army and its allied militias to less than five square kilometers in El-Fasher, the smallest area under army control since the siege began. The lab’s images also showed munitions impact damage at the city’s water authority, which supplies much-needed drinking water to the besieged population.
“The pattern of life is ending,” Raymond told AFP. “They are dying in poverty, crossfire and bombardment and they’re being killed as they’re trying to leave.” He added, “The most worrisome part will be when there’s no one left to dig the graves anymore.” Satellite images show that cemeteries have been expanded in recent months, a grim testament to the mounting death toll.
While El-Fasher faces relentless assault, violence is not confined to this city alone. On August 30, a Sudanese army drone strike hit the Yashfeen clinic in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, which is currently under RSF control. A war monitoring group told AFP that at least 12 people were killed in the attack, with preliminary reports suggesting that dozens of civilians and medical staff may have perished. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity for safety reasons, warned that the death toll could rise as more information comes to light. The Sudanese army has not commented on the incident.
The RSF’s origins trace back to the Janjaweed Arab militias, infamous for their role in the Darfur genocide of the early 2000s. The group is accused of genocide, sexual violence, and systematic looting, and now seeks to wrest full control of Darfur after being pushed out of the capital, Khartoum, earlier this year. The RSF recently announced the formation of a parallel government in the region, and if it succeeds in capturing El-Fasher, it would control all five Darfur state capitals.
Experts warn that the city’s non-Arab Zaghawa tribe could face a fate similar to that of the non-Arab Massalit tribe in El-Geneina, West Darfur, where UN investigators found that up to 15,000 people—mostly from the Massalit community—were killed in 2023 massacres blamed on RSF forces. Both warring sides have been accused of war crimes, but the RSF in particular faces allegations of orchestrating genocide and ethnic cleansing. In the early 2000s, the Janjaweed-led campaign killed an estimated 300,000 people, targeting non-Arab ethnic groups in Darfur.
“The Janjaweed are about to win the entire genocide that began in the early 21st century,” Raymond told AFP. “And the world isn’t going to do anything about it.” The RSF’s current campaign in El-Fasher, with its use of berms to trap the population and its relentless shelling of civilian neighborhoods, has drawn stark comparisons to the darkest days of Darfur’s past.
As the siege tightens, life inside El-Fasher grows ever more desperate. Humanitarian workers report that the population is on the brink of starvation, and the lack of access to medical care is pushing mortality rates higher. The city’s water supply has been damaged by munitions, and the expansion of cemeteries signals the grim reality faced by residents. The communications blackout imposed by the warring parties has only made it harder for aid agencies to assess the full scale of the crisis or deliver much-needed assistance.
The international community has watched with alarm as the violence in Darfur escalates, but diplomatic efforts to halt the fighting or secure humanitarian corridors have so far failed to produce results. Both the Sudanese army and the RSF continue to accuse each other of atrocities, with civilians caught in the crossfire. The formation of a parallel RSF government in Darfur has further complicated the political landscape, raising fears of a prolonged and even bloodier conflict.
For the people of El-Fasher and Nyala, the war has brought hunger, fear, and loss on a staggering scale. As the RSF tightens its grip and the army resorts to drone strikes on civilian infrastructure, the prospects for peace seem ever more remote. The world’s attention may wax and wane, but for those trapped inside Darfur’s besieged cities, the nightmare is unrelenting—and the need for urgent action has never been greater.