Sudanese paramilitaries announced today that they had taken control of El Faser after seizing the army headquarters in the last major town in Darfur they had not yet captured.

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) “proudly announce that they have taken control of the city of El Faser,” the capital of North Darfur, the organization said in a statement broadcast on its Telegram channel.

The Sudanese army has remained silent since the announcement, but the People’s Resistance Committee, a civilian organization that supports it, has denied that the capture of the general staff means the fall of the city in western Sudan. The residents of El Fasser are “resisting the paramilitaries”, assured the Commission, speaking of an “important and critical phase” of the fighting, after 18 months of siege.

As there is no access to El Faser and the telecommunications network is down, AFP was unable to confirm the situation in the city, nor the claims of the two sides.

DTY released a series of videos, with shots from inside the general staff and celebrations in other cities of the country.

According to the local Committee, the fighting continues and the DTY infiltrated “empty buildings of no importance”, which the army had abandoned to move to other positions.

In recent months El Faser has become a key front in the deadly conflict between the army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitaries of his former ally, General Mohamed Daglo. The DTY intensified the bombardments from August, with artillery and drones, gradually weakening the army’s positions and occupying many districts.

The capture of the city, if confirmed, would be a turning point in the war, as it would mean a strengthening of the DTY’s position in Darfur where the paramilitaries and their allies already control four regional capitals and parts of the south. The army still controls northern, eastern and central Sudan.

Experts point out that Sudan is in danger of fragmenting. Despite international efforts for a ceasefire, the two sides have turned a deaf ear to calls for negotiations. On Friday, new peace talks took place in Washington with the participation of the US, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. The group of mediators called for “advancement of collective efforts for peace and stability in Sudan” as well as a political transition to a political regime, according to Masad Boulos, the US special envoy for Africa. He also reiterated a proposal he made in September that was immediately rejected by Sudan’s military-backed government. The proposal involves a three-month humanitarian truce followed by a permanent ceasefire and the exclusion of both the current government and the DTY from the post-war political landscape.

As of April 2023, tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced. The UN considers the war in Sudan to have caused “the worst humanitarian crisis” in the world. According to the Organization, 260,000 civilians, half of whom are children, lack food, water and healthcare in El Fasser. More than a million fled the city after the war broke out.