RSF seizes El Fasher, forcing Sudanese Armed Forces withdrawal

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has captured El Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur State, forcing a complete withdrawal of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). On October 26, RSF personnel stormed the SAF’s 6^th Infantry Division headquarters. SAF leader General Abdel Fattah al Burhan confirmed the following day that his troops had retreated from the city, ending what had been an 18-month siege. In a televised speech, Burhan explained that his forces retreated to “spare the citizens and the rest of the city from destruction.”

On October 27, the Joint Forces, a rebel group fighting alongside the SAF, announced that Joint Forces Spokesman Colonel Ahmed Hussein Mustafa was killed in action. In addition, the SAF’s local commander, Major General Mohammed al Khidir, is unaccounted for as RSF-linked media outlets claim he has been detained.

With the fall of the North Darfur capital, the RSF controls all five state capitals in the Darfur region, effectively bifurcating Sudan. “The RSF’s full control of the Darfur region could have dangerous and worrying consequences in the future in terms of partition,” US Senior Advisor for Arab and African Affairs Massad Boulos said.

The most recent assault on El Fasher began on October 23, when RSF units launched a multi-pronged push employing infantry, armored vehicles, artillery barrages, and drone strikes. The SAF claimed to have repelled the initial attack and that it inflicted heavy casualties on the RSF and its foreign mercenaries from Colombia, Chad, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic. However, the next day, the RSF captured the governor’s mansion and encircled the 6^th Infantry Division base. SAF troops held out until a last stand in El Fasher’s Al Daraja al Ula neighborhood on October 26, where their rear-guard position finally crumbled.

In July, RSF leader Mohamed “Hemedti” Dagalo declared a “Government of Peace and Unity” in western Sudan as a direct challenge to the SAF-led administration in Khartoum. With the fall of the SAF’s last major stronghold in Darfur, the region has fallen under near-total RSF control, with RSF leaders, including Hemedti, using it as a base.

Foreign arms sales from South Sudan, Libya, and the Central African Republic helped the RSF capture El Fasher and could bolster the group’s efforts as it pushes towards Khartoum. Additionally, reports from several US intelligence agencies show an increase in the flow of weapons from the United Arab Emirates to the RSF through Libya.

An RSF spokesman called the victory in El Fasher a significant turning point that “[broke] the back of the army and its allies,”  framing the victory as “a step on the path to building a new state that all Sudanese will participate in establishing according to their aspirations for freedom, peace, and justice.”

Despite these idealistic statements, multiple sources report widespread atrocities carried out by RSF fighters in El Fasher, and videos have surfaced of the group’s fighters executing civilians en masse.

Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) satellite imagery from October 27 shows evidence of “house-to-house clearance operations” in a residential area that serves as a civilian shelter. The imagery also displays objects consistent with human bodies and large blood stains near RSF vehicles. HRL concluded that “El-Fasher appears to be in a systematic and intentional process of ethnic cleansing” where RSF fighters target non-Arab communities from the Fur, Zaghawa, and Berti ethnic groups.

Sudanese Christians are amongst the most vulnerable population. As one senior Sudanese church leader put it, “Christians are seen as an enemy for both warring parties.” RSF fighters have repeatedly targeted Christian civilians in areas they capture, forcing Christian women to marry RSF fighters and some individuals to convert to Islam in exchange for lifesaving aid.

On October 29, the SAF’s Transitional Sovereign Council declared that the “state will soon restore security to El-Fasher.”

Mariam Wahba and Samuel Ben-Ur are research analysts at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow Mariam on X @themariamwahba.