Fears of new civil war as fighting flares in South Darfur
- Darfur and Sudan’s capital Khartoum have borne the brunt of 4 months of fighting between the army and the paramilitary, led by rival generals vying for power
- At least 3,900 people have been killed nationwide, according to a conservative estimate, and 4 million people uprooted from their homes, UN says
Violence flared in the western Sudanese city of Nyala and elsewhere in the state of South Darfur on Sunday, witnesses said, threatening to engulf the region in Sudan’s protracted war.
Darfur as well as Sudan’s capital Khartoum have borne the brunt of nearly four months of fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by rival generals vying for power.
The conflict has brought daily battles to the streets of the capital of Khartoum, a revival of ethnically targeted attacks in West Darfur, and the displacement of more than 4 million people within Sudan and across its borders into Chad, Egypt, South Sudan and other countries.
Clashes between the Sudanese army and the RSF have flared periodically in Nyala, the country’s second biggest city and a strategic hub for the fragile Darfur region.
Witnesses said on Sunday that RSF paramilitaries had attacked Nyala with “dozens of military vehicles” and that “hundreds of residents are fleeing intense artillery fire”.
The latest flare-up has lasted three days, with both the army and RSF firing artillery into residential neighbourhoods, witnesses told Reuters. Fighting has damaged electricity, water, and telecoms networks.
At least eight people were killed on Saturday alone, according to the Darfur Bar Association, a national human rights monitor.
Sudan war displaces over 2 million as fighting rages in Darfur
In recent days, fighting has extended 100km to the west of Nyala, in the Kubum area, killing dozens, according to witnesses.
The bar association said Arab tribesmen equipped with RSF vehicles attacked the area, burning the market and raiding the police station in an attack on a rival Arab tribe. The fighting killed 24 people, it said.
Several Arab tribes have pledged their allegiance to the RSF.
“We call on all elements not to get dragged into the conflict whose aim is power in the centre of the country,” the bar association said.
On Friday, Meta removed official Facebook pages belonging to the RSF for violating its “dangerous organisations and individuals policy”.
At least 3,900 people have been killed nationwide, according to a conservative estimate by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.
More than four million people have been uprooted from their homes, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
01:34
Chinese families reunite in Beijing after being evacuated from conflict-ridden Sudan
Extensive fighting in the area risks returning Darfur to the bloody attacks of the early 2000s when “Janjaweed” militias - from which the RSF formed – helped the army crush a rebellion by mainly non-Arab groups.
Some 300,000 people were killed, the UN estimates, and Sudanese leaders are wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide and crimes against humanity.
The UN’s special representative to Sudan, Volker Perthes, warned in July that the conflict showed no signs of a quick resolution and “risked morphing into an ethnicised civil war”.
Diplomatic mediation efforts has so far failed and ceasefires have been used by both sides to regroup.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
