24 people killed in RSF shelling of besieged Sudanese city of El-Fasher

24 people were killed and 55 others, including five women, were injured on Wednesday as a result of artillery shelling of the city of El Fasher in North Darfur by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the Sudan Doctors’ Network has said.

In a statement on X, the network said that the shelling targeted the central market area and the Awlad Al-Reef neighbourhood of El-Fasher.

The Sudan Doctors’ Network strongly condemned the massacre committed by the RSF, saying that “this heinous crime adds to a series of war crimes and acts of genocide targeting unarmed civilians in El Fasher for more than a year”.

The RSF militia have been besieging El-Fasher since May 2024, creating severe shortages of food, medicine, and fuel. The city has been described as a “death trap” by international organisations.

The Sudan Doctors’ Network said that the targeting of densely populated residential areas was “a blatant violation of all international and humanitarian laws, exposing the widespread violations committed by the RSF against citizens who have held on to their homes and land.”

It also held “the international community, the UN Security Council, and the African Union fully responsible for their silence and failure to confront these crimes,” calling for immediate action to stop the shelling, lift the siege on El Fasher, and increase pressure on RSF leaders to end what it described as “genocide and systematic starvation against defenceless civilians in El Fasher.”

Last Friday, the United Nations announced that at least 89 people had been killed in 10 days as a result of attacks it attributed to the RSF on El Fasher and the nearby Abu Shouk camp.

The RSF has been at war with the Sudanese army since mid-April 2023. The conflict has resulted in the deaths of more than 20,000 people and the displacement of around 15 million, according to the United Nations and local authorities.

A study conducted by American universities gave a much higher estimated death toll of around 130,000.

The RSF has lost territory recently due to continued advances by the army and its allied militias. The RSF notably lost all the areas it once held in the Sudanese capital Khartoum in March 2025.

Today, fighting is mainly concentrated in the central and western regions of the country.