The escalation in fighting comes amid growing concern over the high humanitarian toll of the conflict.
Fighting has intensified across Sudan, with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group launching attacks on the besieged cities of El Fasher and Bara, North Kordofan in North Darfur.
Military sources told Al Jazeera that the RSF attacked the city of Bara, 350 kilometers (215 miles) southwest of the capital Khartoum, from multiple directions on Saturday morning, coming under fire from the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).
The city is one of the largest urban areas under military control, close to the RSF’s western front, but is under siege by paramilitary fighters.
Communications networks were cut off after the attack on North Kordofan’s second largest city. Clashes continued in El Fasher from early morning, with shelling and gunfire continuing into the morning, sending plumes of smoke rising over the provincial capital.
According to the Sudan Tribune newspaper, the paramilitary group released a video on Friday claiming that its fighters had occupied the North Darfur governor’s residence in El Fasher and were camped near the headquarters of the South African Air Force’s 6th Infantry Division, which is currently the army’s local command center.
The RSF fighters in the video said they were marching into the city centre.
The humanitarian crisis is ‘beyond comprehension’
The Sudan Tribune quoted a 6th Infantry Division official as saying that a “cautious calm” had settled over El Fasher by Friday morning after what it described as a major attack the previous day.
However, residents trapped in the besieged city were still exposed to artillery fire. “It’s happening everywhere, even near me. The shell landed about 100 meters (110 yards) away,” one El Fasher resident told Al Jazeera.
The escalation comes as medical workers warn that the humanitarian situation has reached catastrophic levels. Dr. Razan al-Mahdi, a spokesperson for the Sudanese Doctors Network, said in a statement Thursday that the crisis in El Fasher is “beyond comprehension.”
“We are losing at least three children every day due to malnutrition, disease and severe lack of medical and humanitarian resources,” she said.
Four United Nations agencies warned this week that more than 250,000 civilians, half of them children, remain cut off from food and medical care and thousands of children face imminent death as a result of El Fasher’s 16-month siege.
Officials said medical facilities were overwhelmed and severely malnourished children were unable to receive treatment.
Save the Children announced on Tuesday that at least 17 children were killed and 22 injured in El Fasher in October alone, based on casualty data from the Sudan Doctors Network.
In Thursday’s fighting in El Fasher, the RSF launched what the SAF described as a significant attack from five directions. The military announced that it had repelled the attack.
The war also led to a surge in drone attacks targeting civilian infrastructure.
United Nations expert Radoan Neusser this week expressed concern about the escalation in drone attacks by both sides. RSF attacks on electricity infrastructure on Tuesday knocked out electricity in several cities and injured six workers.
On Friday, for the fourth day in a row, RSF drones targeted Khartoum’s international airport, which the military had hoped to reopen after retaking the capital in March. Due to this, the reopening has been postponed.
The conflict, which began in April 2023, has become the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with tens of thousands of people dead, 12 million displaced and 30 million in need of aid.
Foreign Minister Mohiruddin Salem visited Washington DC this weekend for talks on peace and humanitarian cooperation. After reports emerged that indirect talks were taking place between the SAF and RSF, Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied them.
In recent months, US President Donald Trump has repeatedly promised to step up efforts to end the war in Sudan. But his foreign policy focus is now on strengthening the fragile Gaza ceasefire and finding a way to reach any kind of ceasefire in Russia’s war in Ukraine, and Sudan is not a priority.
