After 18 months of surviving forced starvation and shelling, the regional capital and symbolic battleground of Al Fashir has effectively fallen to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

On Sunday, the RSF advanced into the heart of the city and captured the 6th Infantry Division of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in central Al Fashir, after three days of intensified ground battles.

In propaganda videos shared on RSF social media channels, their troops waved their assault rifles in the yard of the garrison and celebrated victory in front of a bullet-ridden wall marked with an emblem of the Sudanese military.

The RSF claimed to have taken over the city and completed their military control of the Darfur region, where the administration of former US president Joe Biden has accused them of committing genocide.

Al Fashir is currently in a telecommunications blackout, an ominous sign that has marked previous takeovers by the paramilitary group.

United Nations experts accused the RSF of killing 10,000 to 15,000 people in ethnically motivated attacks in the city of Al Geneina in West Darfur. They were later accused of killing hundreds more months later in rampant ethnic violence as they captured the city.

The Sudan Doctors Network is initially reporting from their field teams that the RSF has killed dozens of unarmed civilians in Al Fashir on ethnic grounds in the hours after capturing the army garrison in the city.

Thousands of civilians are still trapped in the city and several sources have told Sky News that negotiations are still ongoing to secure safe passage across political, military and diplomatic channels.

After 18 months of his forces fending RSF attacks to capture Al Fashir, the SAF-aligned Governor of Darfur Mini Minnawi shared this post on X on Monday morning:

“The fall of Al Fashir does not mean squandering the future of Darfur in favour of violent groups or the interests of corruption and agents.

“We demand the protection of civilians, the disclosure of the fate of the displaced, and an independent investigation into the violations and massacres carried out by the militia away from prying eyes. Every inch will return to its rightful owners.”

Sudanese army soldiers and civilian resistance fighters had initially denounced the RSF’s declaration of full victory and said battles were ongoing to fend off the city’s capture.

A wedge of military-held territory had remained on the western edge of Al Fashir, where many civilians are now squeezed in as the RSF cements their full control.

“I left because all of the residents and forces have been intensely concentrated in Al-Daraja Owla neighbourhood. It was too much, people started fleeing en masse,” says aid worker and resident Adam Al Rashid, who left Al Fashir a day before the army garrison was captured.

Read more:
‘Massacre’ in Sudan kills at least 53
Sudanese militia leader convicted of war crimes

“The RSF was moving people out and attacking others. So many have been killed by gunfire and shelling from battles. It was clear this was coming. The RSF has been advancing on the 6th infantry division for three days.”

Around 5,000 people fled Al Fashir between 23 and 26 October, according to initial assessments by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

Videos shared on RSF channels show masses fleeing on foot; some filmed by an RSF surveillance drone scattered across a field and others left in long, sombre queues as RSF soldiers yelled at them from inside their trucks.

Other videos show men of fighting age rounded up and kneeling on the ground as RSF troops yell at them “you are all army”. Sources told Sky News that those fleeing faced mass arrests and extra-judicial killings on their way out.

Journalist Muammer Ibrahim is one of those who has been held by RSF fighters as he tried to escape the city. Videos shared on RSF channels show him surrounded by armed men in fatigues as he declares his neutrality.

In one video, he is helpless, crouching on the ground as fighters tower over him and urge him to make a statement.

“The RSF now controls Al Fashir in full and has completed their control of Darfur,” he says under duress.

Mr Muammer has bravely reported on the RSF siege of Al Fashir for 18 months, even as his own well-being and safety have been threatened by enforced starvation and daily shelling.

Sara Qudah, regional director for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), called Mr Muammer’s abduction “a grave and alarming reminder” that journalists in Al Fasher are being targeted “simply for telling the truth”.

“Detaining a journalist who has spent two years documenting the human cost of this war is not only an assault on press freedom in Sudan, it is an attempt to silence an entire city under siege and erase its suffering from the world’s conscience,” she said.

In a recent message from his embattled hometown, he told Sky News:

“I hope this tragedy will end soon.”