PORT SUDAN – Shelling from Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces killed five children in the besieged North Darfur state capital of Al-Fasher, a medical source said on Thursday.

The attack on Wednesday was first reported by the Sudanese army, which has been locked in a war with the RSF since April of 2023.

“The militia targeted civilians in the city’s neighborhoods with artillery shelling, killing five children under the age of six and wounding four women,” the army said in a statement.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a medical source confirmed the toll.

Al-Fasher, under siege by the RSF since last May, is the only one of five state capitals in the vast Darfur region that is not under paramilitary control.

Fighting in the city has intensified in recent months, as the RSF tries to consolidate its hold on Darfur after army victories in central Sudan.

The army and allied militias have successfully repelled the RSF’s attacks on Al-Fasher.

However, the paramilitary forces have repeatedly shelled nearby famine-hit displacement camps in what local activists say is retaliation.

Since Sudan’s war began, it has claimed tens of thousands of lives, uprooted more than 12 million people, and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.

In North Darfur alone, nearly 1.7 million people are displaced.

Around 2 million people face extreme food insecurity, and 320,000 are already suffering famine conditions, according to UN estimates.

Famine has hit three displacement camps around Al-Fasher — Zamzam, Abu Shouk and Al-Salam — and is expected to spread to five more areas, including Al-Fasher itself, by May.

AN-AFP