The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have seized Wad Madani, Sudan’s second city, which had taken in hundreds of thousands of refugees from the capital, Khartoum, early in the eight-month war between the army and the RSF.
Videos posted by the RSF on Monday showed fighters in pickup trucks driving along streets in the city, the capital of el-Gezira state.
The RSF advanced after three days of clashes, which caused many people to flee the city towards the south.
Wad Madani is home to the army’s first infantry division.
More than 10,000 people have been killed since the war between the two rival forces erupted in April. Six million people have been forced to flee their homes, causing the world’s biggest internal displacement crisis.
Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the army, and Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of the RSF, shared power with a civilian government after the 2019 overthrow of the president, Omar al-Bashir. The two generals seized power for themselves in a 2021 coup, only to fall out this year over the timetable for the RSF to be integrated into the army.
The RSF has gradually advanced on major cities across the country, taking control of four of Darfur’s states and most of Khartoum.
The UN said about half of Sudan’s population are facing hunger and more than 20 million children have not been at school since the start of the war. Both sides have been accused of committing mass rapes of women and girls.
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