Sudan Nashra: Abdel Rahim Dagalo threatens Fasher attack, demands surrender | Khartoum residents begin returning | RSF attacks on Gamuia villages, Omdurman continue

With less than a week left until the war in Sudan marks its two-year anniversary on April 15, the civilian death toll continues to rise.

To the west of Khartoum, Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters who had fled the city after the military’s takeover in late March continue to attack villages of the Gamuia tribe in southern Omdurman for the second consecutive week, with the death toll now nearing 100. In Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan State, civilians continue to bear the brunt of the RSF’s artillery shelling, with seven members of one family killed on Tuesday. In Fasher, North Darfur, RSF shelling continues to threaten the hundreds of thousands of residents trapped in neighborhoods and displacement camps, with 13 people killed this week alone.

The humanitarian situation in North Darfur, and particularly in Fasher, continues to deteriorate, with a severe food shortage exacerbated by the RSF siege. The military’s inability to carry out humanitarian airdrops led the government to call for the United Nations to intervene and deliver aid.

Speaking to his fighters near the Chadian border, RSF Deputy Commander Abdel Rahim Dagalo, who is increasingly taking charge of the paramilitary group, threatened to attack Fasher, calling on residents to leave and demanding that the military and its allied joint force surrender. Meanwhile, a military source in the joint force told Mada Masr that they were amassing troops in Dabba, Northern State, in preparation to open a route and advance toward Fasher.

In Khartoum, for the first time since the war began, authorities reopened on Saturday the riverine bridges linking the capital’s three cities to the public, and residents began to return to check on their homes and belongings after the military recaptured the city. 

A returnee told Mada Masr that all that remains of his home now are the walls, as his savings and possessions were looted over the past two years. However, life is slowly returning to the less-damaged eastern and southern parts of Khartoum, where markets have reopened and some goods are beginning to appear.

***

RSF attacks on Gamuia villages, southern Omdurman continues, death toll rises to 100

For the second consecutive week, RSF fighters have been storming villages in southern Omdurman, west of the Jebel Awliya Dam, bringing the death toll since the onset of the violence to over 100. 

Eyewitnesses told Mada Masr that the villages of the Gamuia tribe remain under relentless RSF assaults, which they said have resulted in more casualties and displaced thousands.

The attacks follow the military’s expulsion of RSF fighters from Khartoum in late March. As their fighters retreated across the Jebel Awliya Dam Bridge, they launched a wave of brutal attacks on Gamuia villages. Villagers resisted widespread looting, prompting retaliatory violence that left dozens dead and homes destroyed last week, a local source told Mada Masr. 

Ahmad al-Tohamy, from the village of Kadi in southern Omdurman, told Mada Masr that an RSF unit attacked the village of Eid al-Hadd in Gamuia on Sunday, killing and injuring 106 civilians. On Tuesday, another RSF unit stormed the village of Teris, clashing with villagers who tried to defend themselves and their property.

Some villagers fled by boat to the Fatih al-Aglyin area south of Khartoum, Tohamy added, where they are now in urgent need of shelter and assistance.

On Tuesday, the Sudanese Doctors Network stated that over 100 people, including women and children, were killed in RSF attacks on southern Omdurman. The network also warned of dire conditions faced by those displaced to eastern White Nile State, where severe shortages of food and medicine are compounding the crisis. 

Despite the violence, the military has yet to intervene or pursue RSF fighters across the Jebel Awliya Bridge to stop the attacks. A military source attributed this reluctance to the presence of landmines, necessitating a cautious advance. 

The RSF had used this same strategy of retaliatory violence in Gezira’s villages, the source noted, following the defection of former RSF commander in the state, Abu Agla Keikel, to the military. 

***

Cautious return of Khartoum residents as authorities reopen bridges, roads

Two weeks after the military secured Khartoum, the city has begun to see a gradual return of citizens checking on their homes and possessions, following authorities' announcement on Saturday of a new security plan and the reopening of roads and bridges connecting the capital's three cities.

Ibrahim Moatasem, from the Gabra neighborhood in southern Khartoum, described the situation on the ground as dire, accusing the RSF of looting and destroying everything from household furniture to electrical wires and water networks. Returning to inspect his home, Moatasem told Mada Masr that all that remains now are the walls.

The neighborhood is deserted and lacks basic services, Moatasem said — a situation that is also mirrored across eastern and central Khartoum. The marks of heavy fighting in Mogran, the Arab Market and the neighborhoods surrounding military headquarters are visible, he added. 

Prior to the recent wave of returnees, most civilians have been concentrated in southern Khartoum neighborhoods like Kalakla, Mayo, Ingaz, Salma, Soba and Shagara near the Armored Corps camp, as well as in the eastern neighborhoods of Gereif and Berri.

Moatasem noted that small markets in these areas have begun to appear with the arrival of some goods and easier movement. The resumption of communication networks and the availability of cash have also helped revive purchasing activity, he said.

The Khartoum state government said that its emergency program to rehabilitate the capital, following the expulsion of the RSF from its cities, would begin with securing public and private property and neighborhoods, recovering bodies, clearing unexploded ordnance from roads and reopening them, and restoring water and electricity services. 

After securing Khartoum, security authorities imposed strict measures across the city, including requiring permits for civilians seeking to cross the bridges linking the capital's three cities, according to Mada Masr’s correspondent in the capital, who was asked by security forces for a permit. 

***

Military advances in Blue Nile

On Tuesday, the military regained control of the Silk military base in Blue Nile State in southeastern Sudan. 

The Fourth Infantry Division released a video of its capture of the area and the destruction of multiple RSF combat vehicles.

The military launched a surprise attack early Tuesday on the areas of Silk and Magagga in the Bau locality, a field source told Mada Masr. The operation, which lasted nearly ten hours, resulted in the destruction of 12 RSF combat vehicles, the killing of several RSF fighters and the seizure of a drone-launching platform that had been targeting the regional capital, Damazin, according to the source.

Following their defeat, RSF fighters retreated to the Yabus area in the far south of the region, the source said, noting that the RSF is facing shortages of weapons, ammunition and combat vehicles.

The military is preparing to push toward Yabus and reclaim it, the source added, especially with the arrival of advanced drones to support its forces on this front.

***

RSF shelling kills 7 members of a family in Obeid 

The RSF resumed its artillery shelling of Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan State, on Tuesday and Wednesday, resulting in the deaths of several civilians and injuries to others, a local source told Mada Masr.

On Tuesday, the shelling hit a home, killing seven and injuring three members of a single family, while two people were injured in Wednesday’s attack.

Since the RSF’s retreat to western Obeid following the military’s recapture of the road linking it to the White Nile State in May last year, the city has been subjected to RSF shelling from its western and southern areas, involving the use of long-range rockets targeting neighborhoods within the city. 

Local activist Mohamed al-Safrawy told Mada Masr that the recent shelling is being launched from areas to the southwest of Obeid, targeting neighborhoods in the west. 

On Wednesday, the military arrested several individuals operating as sleeper cells or collaborating with the RSF in Obeid, Safrawy said.

***

Abdel Rahim Dagalo threatens assault on Fasher, military announces deaths of Colombian, Ecuadorian mercenary drone experts

RSF Deputy Commander Abdel Rahim Dagalo threatened to attack Fasher and urged its residents to evacuate the city for their safety amid renewed shelling on Tuesday.

Speaking near the Chadian border, along the border between the North Darfur and South Darfur states, Dagalo addressed thousands of RSF fighters, ordering them to kill military leaders in Fasher on sight, including the Sixth Infantry Division commander and intelligence officers. 

Referring to the military-allied armed movements as mercenaries, he told his fighters to leave safe corridors open for those of them willing to surrender and withdraw from the city.

An RSF combat source from the western sector told Mada Masr that RSF troops have been amassing on the outskirts of Fasher, positioning combat units along the routes leading into the city. 

According to the source, the RSF was pursuing three main strategies to capture the city. The first was to pressure the armed movements to withdraw from Fasher, allowing the military and RSF to settle the battle while sparing civilians. The second was to force the military and its allied joint force to fully surrender, followed by an agreement with armed movements’ leaders to form a separate administration in the Darfur region. The source named the three leaders of the armed movements — Minni Arko Minnawi, Gibril Ibrahim and Abdallah Yahya — as targets of this strategy. 

The third option, the source added, was for the RSF to invade Fasher and expel the military. 

A military source in the joint force told Mada Masr that the RSF is working to tighten its siege on Fasher, setting up outposts at the city’s entrances and along roads leading in. At the same time, the joint force is working to open a route toward the city from the Dabba military area in the Northern State, where its forces are mobilizing, the source said. 

On Tuesday, the RSF resumed shelling the city. A medical source told Mada Masr that 13 people were killed and 17 were injured as RSF drone strikes targeted several neighborhoods, causing further displacement from the northern and eastern parts of Fasher.

An intelligence source in the military’s Sixth Infantry Division in Fasher told Mada Masr that the Sudanese Air Force carried out strikes on RSF drone launch sites, killing nine foreign military experts — five from Colombia and four from Ecuador. According to the source, the experts had arrived with Dagalo last month to operate strategic and suicide drones.

While an RSF combat source, speaking to Mada Masr, confirmed that the military had bombed several RSF-controlled sites, they denied that any military installations were hit.

***

Humanitarian crisis deepens in Fasher amid ongoing RSF siege

As the RSF continues its siege and shelling of Fasher, the humanitarian crisis in the city and nearby displacement camps is worsening, prompting urgent calls from the Sudanese government to the United Nations for intervention.

Ibrahim Gaber, a member of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council and the military’s assistant commander-in-chief, urged UN agencies and international missions in Sudan to step up pressure on the RSF to allow humanitarian aid to reach displaced persons’ camps around Fasher.

During a Saturday meeting with a UN delegation led by UN High Commissioner for Refugees Representative in Sudan Kristine Hambrouck, Gaber reaffirmed the government’s commitment to cooperate with all relevant parties to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to those in need across the country.

For her part, Hambrouck expressed the UN’s readiness to present a proposal to all sides aimed at addressing the worsening humanitarian crisis in Fasher and the Zamzam displacement camp.

Government spokesperson Khaled al-Eaisar said the government called on the UN to intervene using its aircraft and convoys to save the lives of civilians in Fasher and surrounding areas.

More than 90 people have been killed and over 40 have been injured due to the shelling of the Malha area in North Darfur, ongoing since mid-March, North Darfur Health Ministry Director General Ibrahim Khater told Mada Masr. Zamzam camp, meanwhile, is grappling with a severe water crisis due to the RSF’s systematic destruction of all water stations in the areas of Golo and Shagra, he added. Additionally, solar energy systems supplying power to the camp were looted.

Khater also pointed to fuel shortages, rising fuel prices, a surge in commodity prices and a scarcity of medicine across the state.

In the Abu Shouk camp near Fasher, 47 people, including 13 children, were killed, while 78 others were injured due to RSF shelling in March, member of the high committee for the management of the camp in North Darfur, Seif Eddin Sago, told Mada Masr. He also noted a rise in cases of severe malnutrition among children and pregnant women, with over 2,000 reported cases in February and March, and 18 people dying of malnutrition related causes in March.

In Golo village, a fire broke out on Saturday at a shelter for displaced people from Fasher, affecting more than 200 families, Adam Rijal, spokesperson for the General Coordination of Displaced Persons and Refugees, told Mada Masr.