KHARTOUM: Sudan’s army claimed on Friday it had killed a senior commander for the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Ali Yagoub Gibril, who was under US sanctions, during a battle in the besieged city of Al-Fashir in northern Darfur.
Gibril, a prominent figure within the RSF in Al-Fashir, was reportedly engaged in combat when the Sudanese army’s troops, alongside allied “joint forces” comprising former rebel groups from Darfur, thwarted an RSF attack early on Friday morning, according to a statement released by the army.
There has been no immediate response from the RSF regarding Gibril’s reported death.
The RSF, a paramilitary force, has been surrounding Al-Fashir, the last major city in Darfur not under its control, for several weeks. The escalating conflict in the region has raised concerns among top United Nations officials about the potential for widespread intercommunal violence.
In response to the worsening situation, the UN Security Council on Thursday called for an end to the siege on Al-Fashir.
The conflict between the Sudanese army and the RSF initially erupted in mid-April last year in Khartoum, the capital, over the terms of a transition to democracy, subsequently spreading to other parts of the country.
This ongoing conflict has resulted in the world’s largest displacement crisis, a resurgence of ethnic violence in Darfur attributed to the RSF and its allies, and a significant escalation in severe hunger in the region. The conflict has led to a sharp increase in extreme hunger.