Panic grips Sudan’s last army stronghold as RSF advances, UN warns of looming ethnic cleansing
A devastating drone strike tore through a crowded mosque in Sudan’s Darfur region on Friday, killing at least 78 worshippers during morning prayers and plunging the city of El-Fasher deeper into fear and despair.
The deadly attack, confirmed by a senior medical official to the BBC, comes amid a renewed offensive by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who have besieged El-Fasher for more than a year in their relentless bid to seize the last remaining Sudanese Army stronghold in Darfur.
Eyewitnesses described the moment the drone struck, sending shrapnel flying and collapsing parts of the mosque as prayers were underway. “Dozens were killed instantly,” one resident recounted, his voice breaking. Medical workers said 20 others were wounded while frantic efforts to pull bodies from the rubble continue.
Verified footage from the aftermath shows rows of lifeless bodies, wrapped in shrouds and blankets, laid side by side outside the destroyed mosque in the west of the city.
Though the RSF has not claimed responsibility, their forces have intensified operations across the region. Satellite imagery analyzed by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) indicates the RSF now controls much of the nearby Abu Shouk camp for displaced people, and footage verified by the BBC shows fighters inside the headquarters of the Joint Forces, a coalition aligned with the Sudanese Army, located in a former UN compound.
These advances put El-Fasher’s airport and the Sudanese Army’s division headquarters directly within RSF firing range. Analysts warn the city could fall in days unless the army receives urgent reinforcements.
Humanitarian Alarm
El-Fasher, home to more than 300,000 civilians, has become a pressure cooker of fear, with residents trapped between starvation, bombardment, and the threat of massacre. The UN has warned of the “increasing ethnicisation of the conflict,” with both sides accused of targeting civilians based on their perceived loyalties.
However, humanitarian groups, including Doctors Without Borders, accuse the RSF of pursuing a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing against non-Arab communities. A chilling recent report quoted RSF fighters boasting of plans to “clean El-Fasher” of its non-Arab population.
The RSF denies these allegations, insisting it has no involvement in tribal conflicts. But activists and international observers fear a repeat of the atrocities that have scarred Darfur for decades.
The fall of El-Fasher would cement RSF dominance over western Sudan, effectively splitting the country between the Army-controlled north and east and RSF-controlled west. For the civilians still clinging to life inside the besieged city, the stakes could not be higher.
As one aid worker put it: “If El-Fasher falls, it will not just be a military loss. It will be a humanitarian catastrophe of historic proportions.”
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