Sudan paramilitary shells El-Fasher mosque housing families, killing 13

An artillery attack by Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) killed 13 people in a mosque in the besieged city of El-Fasher, two eyewitnesses told AFP on Thursday.

"After the shelling in the afternoon, we pulled 13 bodies from under the rubble and buried them," one man who lives in the area said of the attack which occurred Wednesday.

A survivor of the strike said: "We were 70 families inside the mosque's walls after the Rapid Support Forces entered our homes. Yesterday, artillery shells fell, killing 13 of us, wounding 20, and destroying part of the mosque."

The attack came a day after the Sudanese army said it seized several forward defensive positions held by RSF in El-Fasher.

RSF blockade

Troops captured several combat vehicles, without giving an exact number, and destroyed six others, including armoured vehicles, the army said.

The RSF has imposed a blockade on El-Fasher since May 10, 2024, despite international warnings about the dangers to the city, a hub for humanitarian operations in the five Darfur states.

In recent months, the RSF-held territory has shrunk rapidly across Sudan as the army expanded its military gains to include Khartoum, White Nile and North Kordofan states.