Sudan's army loses key city of el-Fasher to paramilitary RSF after 18-month siege

Sudan's military chief has confirmed the army's withdrawal from its last western stronghold of el-Fasher after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) declared control of the city.

In a televised address on Monday evening, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said he had approved the withdrawal in response to the "systematic destruction and killing of civilians".

He said he had agreed with local leaders to "leave and go to a safe place to protect the remaining citizens and the rest of the city from destruction".

The UN has raised the alarm over reports of atrocities committed by the RSF in recent days, and has called for safe passage for trapped civilians.

The RSF has consistently denied accusations of killing civilians.

The fall of el-Fasher could mark a significant turning point in Sudan's civil war, which has killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly 12 million people since April 2023.

The RSF now has complete control of the vast Darfur region, while the army is confined to the north, east and centre of Sudan.

The RSF has been besieging el-Fasher for 18 months, trapping hundreds of thousands of civilians in the city and sparking a hunger crisis.

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The RSF has been widely accused of committing large-scale atrocities in el-Fasher since Sunday alone, when the paramilitary group declared that it had captured the city.

According to Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab, satellite imagery shows "evidence of mass killing".

The researchers found clusters of what appear to be human bodies near RSF vehicles and beside the 57-kilometre-long earthen wall that now surrounds the city, suggesting civilians may have been executed while trying to flee.

The Joint Force, an alliance of Darfuri armed groups supporting the military, said 2,000 civilians had been killed since the city fell. There is no independent confirmation of this.

Aid agencies now fear a massacre of non-Arab ethnic groups stuck in el-Fasher. The RSF has denied targeting them, despite evidence of war crimes presented by the UN and human rights organisations.

On Monday, the UN head, Antonio Guterres, said he was "gravely concerned" over the situation in the city, and condemned the reported "violations of international humanitarian law".

Gen Burhan denounced inaction by the international community to end the violations in his address on Monday, and vowed to fight "until this land is purified".

"We can turn the tables every time, and we can return every land desecrated by these traitors to the nation's fold," he said.