PREVIEW
City is strategically important as it is SAF’s final foothold in Darfur
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo ‘Hemeti’, have intensified efforts to take control of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, by building 31 kilometres of fortification around the city to prevent people from leaving.
The earth barrier has created a ‘kill box’, according to recent satellite imagery obtained by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab. More than 500,000 civilians are estimated to be in the city.
Taking El Fasher, which has been under an RSF siege for more than a year, has assumed massive strategic importance as it is the last major foothold in Darfur for the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) of General Abdel Fattah al Burhan (AC Vol 66 No 14, The deadly stalemate deepens & Vol 66 No 17, Washington revives peace push after a year of drift). In July, the RSF established a parallel administration in Darfur but they have struggled to find countries that will recognise it (Dispatches, 11/8/25, Hemeti’s new Darfur-based government faces recognition struggle). Capturing El Fasher is crucial to Hemeti’s legitimacy and RSF leverage in future talks on a peace settlement.
The battle for El Fasher has already come at huge human cost. The RSF has suffered heavy casualties in its offensives and thousands of civilians have been killed. On 1 September, the Sudan Doctors Network reported that RSF shelling had killed at least 18 people and injured more than 100 others.
These moves mark the latest attempts by the RSF to break the stalemate in the civil war. The SAF has consolidated its control of the capital Khartoum and most of the country’s east, including Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
The RSF, meanwhile, controls vast swathes of Saharan territory in west Sudan and is besieging the city of el-Obeid as it seeks to build its strength in central regions.
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