A donkey cart out of El Fasher costs more than a new car': how 500 days under siege is tearing the city apart

"For 17 months, since May 2024, El Fasher, North Darfur's capital, has been trapped in one of the longest urban sieges of modern warfare, a slow war of attrition that recalls the destruction of Stalingrad and the starvation of Leningrad, combining both cruelties in a single city. The siege, progressively tightened by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has transformed the city. Trenches cut through neighbourhoods. Civilians move block by block in search of safety, while self-defence groups fight alongside entrenched garrisons."

"Q&AShow Fighting broke out in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, on 15 April 2023 as an escalating power struggle between the two main factions of the military regime finally turned deadly. On one side are the Sudanese armed forces, who remain broadly loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country's de facto ruler. Against him are the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a collection of militias who follow the former warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti."

"The siege, progressively tightened by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has transformed the city. Trenches cut through neighbourhoods. Civilians move block by block in search of safety, while self-defence groups fight alongside entrenched garrisons. Over these months, El Fasher has become Sudan's war in miniature, a microcosm where the old tactics of siege and starvation collide with new arsenals, with drones and recently introduced weapons turning the city into a testing ground for modern warfare."

El Fasher, North Darfur's capital, has been under siege since May 2024, enduring one of modern warfare's longest urban blockades. The Rapid Support Forces progressively tightened control, carving trenches through neighbourhoods and forcing civilians to move block by block while self-defence groups and entrenched garrisons exchange fire. Drones and newly introduced weapons have turned the city into a testing ground for modern tactics alongside traditional siege and starvation. Fighting began in Khartoum on 15 April 2023 between forces loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF led by Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. The conflict has caused massive displacement, scattering over 10 million internally and about 4 million into neighbouring countries, straining Chad and South Sudan.

Read at www.theguardian.com