Khaberni -The Sudanese Army in West Darfur said its forces are regaining control over key sites in the city of El Fasher, which had been controlled by the semi-military Rapid Support Forces since Friday.
A military source confirmed that the Sudanese army engaged in fierce fighting on Saturday with the forces advancing into El Fasher, Darfur, the previous day. El Fasher remains the last major city in Darfur still under army control.
Residents said they woke up before dawn to heavy machine-gun fire in the streets of the city, which has a population of more than one million people and has been besieged by the Rapid Support Forces since May of the previous year.
The military source added that the Sudanese army forces regained several key locations in the south and west of the city that had been controlled by the Rapid Support Forces on Friday, inflicting heavy losses on the paramilitary forces.
These locations included Shala Prison and the headquarters of the Central Reserve Police, a military force trained for combat.
The Rapid Support Forces doubt the army's narrative, saying their forces control the main livestock market and the police station in the city and are advancing towards the airport.
The Support Forces released videos late on Friday, claiming to show their fighters taking over the locations, with footage showing members of the support forces outside the central Tijaniyyah Mosque. The BBC has not been able to verify their authenticity.
Salah Issa, a resident of the Oulad Al Reef neighborhood in the city center, said that clashes erupted on Friday in the south and west, and on Saturday, there were clashes on the airport road, also located to the west of the city.
Muhiyiddin Abdel Rahman, another witness, reported that the fighting was close-range, using machine guns.
Activists added that the renewed attack on the city began with heavy shelling on Tuesday evening, continuing throughout Wednesday.
A doctor at El Fasher Teaching Hospital told Agence France-Presse on Thursday that 8 civilians were killed when an airstrike carried out by the Rapid Support Forces struck a bomb shelter.
It is difficult to determine a total casualty figure in the city, which suffers from a complete blackout in communication, only surpassed by those who have internet access via satellite.
Almost all health facilities have been forced to close due to the fighting.
This comes at a time when the Prime Minister of Sudan, Kamel Idris, said he is deeply concerned, angry, and responsible about the escalating humanitarian disaster in the city of El Fasher.
He pointed out that millions of innocent civilians live "under a brutal and inhumane siege imposed by the Rapid Support Forces, in one of the most gruesome forms of mass extortion and systematic starvation in modern history".
The Prime Minister called on the UN Secretary-General and international and humanitarian bodies and organizations to "take immediate actions to pressure the militia to open humanitarian corridors and to stop using starvation as a weapon against civilians, which constitutes a complete war crime under international humanitarian law."
Call for investigation by the International Criminal Court
Internationally, Sudan has called on the International Criminal Court to investigate foreign states and entities it accuses of supporting the semi-military Rapid Support Forces in their 26-month war against the army.
Ambassador Harith Idris, Sudan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said in a speech to the Security Council: "We call on the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to involve elements and figures from foreign countries, whether from neighboring countries, Africa, or major regional patrons, in the investigation."
Idris accused unnamed entities of aiding the Rapid Support Forces in continuing their attacks, allowing them to smuggle weapons, and providing them with logistical support, food, supplies, drones, and missiles.
Sudan has previously accused the United Arab Emirates, Kenya, Chad, and South Sudan of aiding the paramilitary group in its ongoing war against the army, but all four countries have denied these accusations.
The American envoy to the Security Council also called for holding the Rapid Support Forces accountable for the crimes committed in Sudan against women and children.
Efforts by the United Nations to achieve a ceasefire have failed, warning of the suffering of civilians trapped in the city, who are forced to seek shelter in temporary dugouts in squares and in front of homes.
Tens of thousands of Sudanese have been killed across the country since the war broke out in April 2023, and more than 14 million have been displaced from their homes.
