On June 29, Rapid Support Forces (RSF) spokesman Al-Fateh Qurashi announced through the group’s social channels that RSF had captured the town of Singa, capital of Sennar state, forcing the soldiers of the 17th Infantry Division of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) that controlled it to flee.
Several reports from the local press confirmed the entry of RSF units into the center of the city, as well as the SAF’s escape and the Air Force’s attempt to thwart the advance of paramilitary militias under the orders of General Dagalo. Fighting inside the city reportedly continued for several hours, engaging the local protection militias allied with the SAF, which tried to put up strenuous resistance, but failed to counter the initiative of the paramilitary militias.
Thousands of Singa residents reportedly left the town in fear of renewed violence and reprisals by the RFS, further fueling the flow of refugees northward toward Blue Nile state and South Sudan.
The next day, on June 30, SAF command spokesman Nabil Abdalla issued a statement in which he denied the RSF’s capture of Singa, claiming that the SAF were fighting “firmly and with high morale,” holding their positions and repelling the attack by paramilitary forces.
As uncertain as the outcome of the attack on Singar still is, the escalation of fighting over the past few weeks has led to a new phase of instability, which has generated an aggravation of the already intense humanitarian crisis in the country, where moreover repeated attacks on humanitarian convoys and widespread looting are reported.
The epicenter of this new phase of fighting seems to be located mainly in Sinnar and Gezira states, with more sporadic activity also in Gedaref state, as part of a very disorganized control of the territory by the two opposing forces. The situation in the capital Khartoum also appears somewhat chaotic, where large parts of the city are still reported to be under RSF control, while in North Darfur the siege on the town of El-Fasher, the last bastion under SAF control, persists.
On July 1, RSF forces hit the center of El-Fasher with artillery in the El Tijaniya neighborhood area, specifically targeting the local mosque, where at least nine people were reportedly killed and 11 injured. On the same day, shelling also targeted the neighborhoods of Sheinibat and Shagra, where more people lost their lives and where relief efforts are made difficult by the absence of medicine in the city’s only remaining operational hospital.
The siege on the town of El-Fasher has been going on since last February, and tough resistance by SAF forces and local town militias has so far prevented the RSF from taking the town, albeit at the cost of huge casualties and a general collapse in service delivery capacity.
The strategic value of the town for the RSF is its geographic location, being the only real road junction connecting to Durfur to the south and east and to Chad to the west, where most of the humanitarian aid heading to the country passes through. The capture of El-Fashir would allow the RSF to take over the entire control of West Darfur and control the flow of goods and humanitarian aid in the region, leading to a serious problem for the SAF in the mobility of military units along the country’s east-south axis.
The town of El-Fasher for a long time had been a safe place for thousands of displaced people especially from Gezira state, which had resulted in a complex situation for their management in a peripheral settlement, which was further aggravated with the onset of fighting generating new flows of refugees to neighboring regions.
The UN Security Council resolution last June calling on the RSF to end its siege of the town has had no effect, while reports of ethnic violence committed by General Dagalo’s militias throughout the state of Darfur against non-Arab communities of African descent are multiplying.
In contrast, the concomitant ongoing crisis in Singa, Sennar state, has fueled an exodus of nearly 60,000 civilians, according to leading humanitarian organizations, which the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is unable to manage and assist, seeking to redirect them to all available refugee camps in Gedaref, Blue Nile, White Nile and Kassala states. Testimonies collected from refugees tell of vicious violence, looting and rape in all areas of the city where the RSFs managed to penetrate, with thousands of residents and refugees fleeing. A crisis that, according to OCHA, could generate up to 130,000 refugees over the next few days.
