Ahmad 
On Friday, clashes described as violent between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces renewed in the city of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, and the army’s last fortress in the west of the country.
The city hosts hundreds of thousands of displaced people fleeing from the fighting in their areas, and it seems that it will witness fierce battles given the state of alert and military mobilization of the warring parties, which has been ongoing for a long time.
International calls by parties to the conflict to avoid fighting expected to cause humanitarian disasters if fighting erupts have been unsuccessful.
According to witnesses residing in El Fasher, fierce battles with heavy weapons broke out between the two sides in the northeastern neighborhoods of the city, where the Rapid Support Forces bombed positions of the army deployed in the center of the city, while the army responded with artillery strikes on the rapid support sites in its vicinity, and strong explosions and sounds of gunfire were heard with heavy smoke plumes rising from the northern and eastern neighborhoods of the city.
For its part, the “Coordination of El Fasher Resistance Committees” said on Facebook that the Sudanese army and the forces of armed movements have been clashing with the Rapid Support Forces east of the city of El Fasher since the morning.
“Heavy artillery shells fall indiscriminately on citizens’ homes, causing civilian casualties, some of which reached the southern hospital,” it said.
At the same time, communications and internet services in the city have reportedly deteriorated, reflecting the scale of the conflict and its impact on the daily lives of residents.
The RSF is imposing a tight siege on the city of El Fasher, in an effort to control it after it tightened its grip on 4 out of 5 states in the Darfur region, and El Fasher is the last stronghold of the Sudanese army in the west of the country.
In this regard, the Deputy United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Darfur, Toby Harward, wrote on his account on the “X” platform, that “the humanitarian situation in El Fasher and the localities surrounding the capital of North Darfur is catastrophic.”
“There has been an increase in arbitrary killings, theft and looting of livestock, the systematic burning of entire villages in rural areas, the escalation of aerial bombardment of parts of the city, and the tightening of the siege around El Fasher,” Harward said.
On Thursday, Human Rights Watch accused the RSF of committing “ethnic cleansing and killings that may indicate that genocide has occurred or is taking place against the Masalit African ethnic group, in the city of El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state.”
In recent weeks, the RSF has made military gains by capturing the town of Mellit, about 60 kilometers from El Fasher, a strategically important area.
Assistant Commander-in-Chief of the Sudanese army, Yasser al-Atta, revealed earlier that the army will use El Fasher as a main military base to retake the four states in the region controlled by the Rapid Support.
According to indications on the ground, the RSF is planning to launch a large-scale ground offensive from several fronts on El Fasher, which the army and its allies can only counter through advanced defenses around the city.
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