Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces defied a U.S. warning and expanded its offensive on a crucial aid hub, escalating the eight-month-old conflict and forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee.
The four-day attack on the southeastern city of Wad Madani also jeopardized the North African nation’s main humanitarian operations, already running at low capacity in a war that’s pitted the RSF against the military and left 12,000 people dead and displaced millions more.
As many as 300,000 people fled the area in Sudan’s Al-Jazirah state — located on the Nile River and commonly referred to as Sudan’s breadbasket — since Dec. 15, the United Nations said Tuesday in a statement. “Given the scarcity of available transport options, many people have reportedly fled by foot,” it said.
The escalation has thwarted efforts by East African mediators and regional heads of state as well as the U.S. and Saudi Arabia to have the leaders of Sudan’s two warring factions meet face to face for the first time in the conflict by the end of the year. The U.N. is warning of a humanitarian catastrophe, with 25 million — more than half of the resource-rich country’s population — in need of aid.
Violence also spread in the southwestern city of El-Fasher in the Darfur region, where hundreds of people fled and private and commercial properties were looted in recent days. The upheaval has spilled over into Sudan’s eastern state of Sennar, with people trying to reach the relative safety of Gedaref, Kassala and Blue Nile states.
The attack on Wad Madani has shuttered shops and markets. It’s also put at risk warehouses contains large stocks of supplies for displaced people and residents of the capital, Khartoum.
All humanitarian field missions have been canceled since Dec 15, according to the U.N..
The RSF, which has its roots in a Darfur militia known as the janjaweed, or “devils on horseback,” said in a statement it moved on Wad Madani after receiving information the army under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan mobilized 40,000 soldiers in an effort to eliminate its forces. Wad Madani is located 150 kilometers (93 miles) southeast of Khartoum.
A spokesman for the army didn’t respond to questions on the latest military operations.
The spike in violence occurred around the fifth anniversary of a popular revolt that eventually toppled the former dictator Omar al-Bashir, whose whereabouts remain unknown after he left a prison in Khartoum earlier in the conflict.
“The incredible bravery and sacrifice displayed by protesters from all walks of life – especially women and youth – led to the beginnings of a democratic future,” the U.S. Embassy to Sudan said in a statement. “However, the promise of that future has been denied to Sudan’s people time and again.”
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