A strike by paramilitaries on El-Fasher, the last city in Sudan’s Darfur region not under theircontrol, has killed at least 12 people, both the army and local activists said.

The deaths are the latest among tens of thousands killed during nearly two years of warbetween the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and Sudan’s army.
They came on Wednesday, the same day Saudi Arabia and the United States called for thewarring sides to resume peace talks.

“The militia bombarded the city of El-Fasher with heavy artillery, killing 12 people andwounding 17,” the army’s Sixth Infantry
Division in El-Fasher said Wednesday.
The local resistance committee, a volunteer aid group, gave the same toll of 12 dead and 17
wounded for Wednesday’s attack.
Sudan’s war has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million.

Famine has been declared in parts of the country, including displacement camps around ElFasher, and was likely to spread, according
to a UN-backed assessment.

The RSF control most of Sudan’s vast western region of Darfur. They have besieged El-Fasher
for months and fighting there has escalated.

On Wednesday the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA said conditions in Darfur are
rapidly deteriorating.

“In North Darfur state, more than 4,000 people have been newly displaced in the past week
alone due to escalating violence in El-Fasher, as well as in Zamzam displacement camp south
of the city and other areas,” OCHA said on its website.

RSF also controls parts of Sudan’s south. The army retook the capital Khartoum in late March.
It holds sway in the east and north, leaving Africa’s third-largest country essentially divided in
two.
Early in the war, which began on April 15, 2023, the United States and Saudi Arabia conducted
mediation but multiple ceasefires collapsed.

On Wednesday the US and Saudi foreign ministers met in Washington.

They “agreed that the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces must return to
peace talks, protect civilians, open humanitarian corridors, and return to civilian
governance,” a US State Department statement said following the meeting.