Civilian killed and wounded in renewed clashes in El Fasher
At least four people were killed and others were injured at Abu Shouk displaced camp following renewed clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces in the city of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, Thursday evening.
The funeral of the dead was attended by large crowds of displaced people and citizens of El Fasher yesterday morning.
Field sources from Abu Shouk camp reported that a shell fell near the camp market, in addition to the incursion of some RSF members who were firing heavily and randomly inside the camp, in addition to the exchange of artillery shelling between the two sides, on the northern side of the city, which caused the death of at least four people. Others were injured, six of whom were transferred to El Fasher Hospital in the south, including four who were unconscious, all of them residents of Abu Shouk camp.
The city of El Fasher has been witnessing occasional clashes and skirmishes between the army and the RSF. It also suffered telecommunications outages, with the partial return of the Sudani telecom network, which operates intermittently.
The recent clashes come amid a sharp division between the Juba Peace Forces, which have continued to play a major role in preventing clashes between the army and the RSF in El Fasher, at times by mediating between the two sides and at other times by declaring neutral positions and adopting the role of guarding public institutions in the city. Recently, Al-Tahir Hajar, head of the Gathering of Sudan Liberation Forces, and Al-Hadi Idris, head of the Sudan Liberation Movement (Transitional Council), are calling to remove the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces from the city and hand over control of the city to the Juba Peace Forces. On the other hand, Jibril Ibrahim, head of the Justice and Equality Movement, and Minni Minawi, chairman of the Sudan Liberation Movement, said they fully stand with the Sudanese army against the RSF.
Some of the Darfuri movements suffered splits as a result of the recent conflict. Most notably, the political secretary of JEM, Suleiman Sandal, defected and announced a new faction completely opposed in its position to the original Justice and Equality Movement, led by Jibril, which supports the army.
The Sudan Liberation Movement-Transitional Council, led by Al-Hadi Idris, also splits. A faction supporting the army led by Salah al-Din Adam Tur, known as “Salah Rasas,” joined the army, while the al-Hadi Idris group remained in its neutral position despite being accused by some of being loyal to the RSF
Recently, the SLM faction led by Minni Minawi, and the JEM faction led by Jibril Ibrahim, Minister of Finance of the Government of Port Sudan, have been active, along with the faction of the SLM led by Mustafa Tambour, in massive recruitment operations in eastern Sudan, marking their involvement in the fight with the Sudanese army against the Rapid Support Forces.
Yesterday, Tambour announced that their forces moved to the Al-Fau area, about 62 kilometers west of Gedaref, to join the armed forces heading towards the city of Wad Medani, which is controlled by the Rapid Support Forces.
The Sudan Liberation Movement forces, led by Tambour, clashed late last January with the forces of the Minawi movement in the Rabwa camp in the city of Gedaref, which led to the death and injury of many between both sides, before the authorities of the city of Gedaref intervened to separate the two forces and transfer Minawi’s forces to another place, while keeping Tambour’s forces in the same camp.