November 3, El Fasher — On Saturday, at least two civilians and five others were injured from artillery shelling by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on El Fasher, capital of North Darfur. The shells hit residential areas and the Saudi hospital. 

On the same day in Kutum, a town located 136 km northwest of El Fasher, the Sudan Doctors Network said that 15 people were killed and five injured after the RSF invaded villages in the north of the town. 

The governor of Darfur and leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement, Minni Arko Minawi, accused the RSF of carrying out a massacre in at least one town and burning 20 villages in the Kutum locality of North Darfur state. Approximately 20,000 residents have been displaced to Chad and this continues to accelerate

The clashes in the northwestern part of North Darfur state are an extension of the fighting that has been taking place in El Fasher since May. El Fasher is under the control of the Sudanese army and the RSF has been attacking intensely to take it over. 

The United Nations has recently voiced alarm over the “nightmare of mass ethnic violence” following the dramatic escalation of fighting in El Fasher. 

El Fasher Shelling 

El Fasher witnessed violent clashes between the Sudanese army and the RSF at the end of last week and shelling on Saturday.

Civilians in the city remain trapped and have been almost entirely cut off from assistance for the past eight months due to the RSF siege. The city is dealing with famine conditions. 

Village Attacks 

Since mid-October, the RSF has been conducting revenge attacks against villages inhabited by the Zaghawa ethnic group in Kutum for allegedly supporting the army. More than 45 villages have allegedly been burned. 

“The world is watching how the villages in North Darfur are being selectively burned by the Rapid Support Forces,” Minawi, the governor of Darfur posted on X. “These crimes are classified under the crime of ethnic cleansing.” 

Haroun Juma, a local leader in the town of Ambro, told Darfur24 that recent attacks on towns around Kutum caused the displacement of residents to refugee camps in eastern Chad. He said that the town of Anka, 60 km southwest of Kutum, was completely burned, including its three schools and the rural health center.