PORT SUDAN, SUDAN —Heavy fighting on Saturday shook a Sudanese city besieged by paramilitaries, witnesses told AFP, as U.S. researchers reported unprecedented and escalating combat in the North Darfur state capital.

El-Fasher is one of five state capitals in Sudan's western Darfur region and the only one not in the hands of the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, who have been battling the regular army since April 2023.

The United Nations says the war across much of Sudan has created the world's largest displacement crisis, with millions uprooted, and has led to famine at a displacement camp near El-Fasher.

Darfur has seen some of the war's worst atrocities, and the RSF has besieged El-Fasher since May.

"Neighborhoods are completely deserted and all you can hear are explosions and missiles," Ibrahim Ishaq, 52, told AFP.

"The central market area has become unlivable because of the intensity of the explosions," said Ishaq, who fled westward from the city on Friday.

Witnesses reported army bombardment south and east of the city on Saturday and said they heard air-defense batteries firing.

The Yale School of Public Health's Humanitarian Research Lab said in a report Friday that its analysis confirmed "unprecedented large-scale combat operations" in El-Fasher within the previous 10 days, "with significant escalation in the past 36 hours" involving the army and the paramilitaries.

It cited reports that describe "a major multidirectional RSF attack from the northern, eastern, and southern directions" on Thursday.

Reduced to rubble

Darfur Governor Mini Minawi had on Thursday said on social media platform X that the army had repelled "a large attack" by the RSF. The paramilitaries, however, said they seized military sites in El-Fasher.

Using satellite imagery and other data, the Yale researchers said they found munition impacts "likely related to high-tempo aerial bombardment" from the regular army, but they said other structural damage resulted from "RSF bombardment" and combat activity by both sides.

Whatever the battle's ultimate outcome, current levels of fighting "are likely to effectively reduce what is left of El-Fasher to rubble," the Yale study said.

The United States special envoy for Sudan, Tom Perriello, on Saturday said on social media platform X: "We are extremely concerned about the RSF's renewed attacks."

He urged the RSF "to stop its assault."

It was not immediately possible to determine the number of victims.

Sudan's war has already killed tens of thousands of people, with some estimates as high as 150,000, according to Perriello.

Strikes near Khartoum

In the capital, Khartoum, on Saturday, about 800 kilometers from El-Fasher, witnesses reported heavy explosions and strikes to the city's south.

Independent United Nations experts earlier this month appealed for deployment of an "impartial force" to be urgently deployed in Sudan for civilian protection.

Sudan's foreign ministry, loyal to the army, rejected the idea.

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