At least 12 people were killed when a Sudanese army drone strike hit a clinic in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, according to war monitors on Sunday. The strike, which targeted the Yashfeen clinic on Saturday, reportedly killed civilians and medical staff, with fears the death toll could rise significantly. The army has not issued an immediate comment on the incident.
The attack came on the same day that paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) shelled El-Fasher, the last major city in Darfur still under army control. Medical sources reported at least seven dead and 71 wounded in the city, with 22 in critical condition. Many of the wounded were unable to reach medical facilities due to intense bombardments.
El-Fasher has emerged as the epicenter of Sudan’s civil war, which erupted in April 2023 between the army and the RSF. The paramilitary group, which evolved from the Janjaweed militias accused of genocide in Darfur in the early 2000s, has tightened its siege on the city. Satellite imagery released last week by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab revealed the RSF had constructed over 31 kilometers of berms, creating what researchers called a “literal kill box” confining army forces to less than five square miles.
The siege has left an estimated 300,000 residents trapped with little access to food, water, or medical care. Nearly 40 percent of children under five are acutely malnourished, with 11 percent suffering severe malnutrition, according to UN estimates. Famine has already been declared in several nearby displacement camps, and aid groups warn it could soon spread to the city itself.
Experts caution that if El-Fasher falls, non-Arab communities, particularly the Zaghawa tribe, risk facing atrocities similar to those experienced by the Massalit in El-Geneina, where up to 15,000 were killed in 2023 massacres blamed on the RSF. Both the army and RSF have been accused of war crimes, but the RSF faces particular scrutiny for alleged genocide, mass killings, and sexual violence.
As the conflict escalates, observers warn Darfur could be on the brink of another humanitarian catastrophe. “The Janjaweed are about to win the entire genocide that began in the early 21st century,” said Nathaniel Raymond of Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab. “And the world isn’t going to do anything about it.”
