Residents of Sudan’s besieged city of El Fasher have been taking refuge in underground bunkers to try to protect themselves from drones and shells after intensifying attacks on displacement shelters, clinics and mosques.
Famine-stricken El Fasher is the Sudanese army’s last holdout in the vast, western region of Darfur as it battles the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in a civil war that has raged for two-and-a-half years.
The conflict, which erupted from an internal power struggle, has triggered ethnic killings, drawn in foreign powers and created a massive humanitarian crisis.
The army has been gaining ground elsewhere in Sudan, but Darfur is the RSF’s stronghold where it aims to base a parallel government, potentially cementing a geographical splintering of the country.
More than one million have fled El Fasher during an 18-month siege by the RSF, according to the UN, but it has become dangerous and expensive to leave. An estimated quarter of a million civilians remain, and there are fears of mass reprisals if the city falls.
