The city of El Fasher in western Sudan's Darfur region, a city of 2.5 million people, received news on Sunday that it may have fallen after a year and a half of siege.
The city was occupied by the Sudanese rebel paramilitary organization "Rapid Support Forces" (RSF).
On Sunday morning, the RSF announced that it had taken over the military headquarters of Fashil, and later in the afternoon further declared that it had "total occupation" of the entire city.
Although no official response from the Sudanese government has been given, images from social media showed that there were intense battles near the airport and a large number of people were fleeing.
Fashir is the only of the five provincial cities in Darfur that has not been taken over by the RSF.
There are not only local residents here, but also hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled from other war zones, many of whom are already in a state of famine.
There are several giant displaced camps around the city, and the largest camp in Zamzam was occupied by the RSF in April, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee again.
The year-and-a-half in Fashir was quite miserable, with ongoing rocket and drone attacks blowing down the city’s public facilities and most of its medical facilities.
Food supplies are even more difficult, and outside aid materials can't get in at all.
In early October, a photo was taken of a classroom that was shattered by fireworks on the roof, and the black board was still there, and the table had become a bunch of garbage.
The origins of the war date back to April 2023, when the Sudanese government forces and the RSF militias had jointly ruled, but the RSF suddenly launched a rebellion, fighting on both sides.
The leader of the RSF, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, is called Hameti, his home is in Darfur.
Earlier this year, the RSF attempted to seize the capital Khartoum but eventually failed and then withdrew to the Darfur region, which is their traditional site.
Now it seems that the RSF’s strategy is clear: to take full control of Darfur and then use it as a base for a Sudanese opposition government opposed to the central government.
The fall of El Fasher was a major military turning point for both sides. For the RSF, it meant that they basically achieved full control of Darfur and had a solid base.
For the government forces, this is undoubtedly a heavy blow. Losing their last stronghold in Darfur is equivalent to handing over the whole western region to the rebels.
Change the soup without medication, the suffering of the people must continue.
But for the hungry people in the city, life will not be any better if the occupiers have changed.
The faces that besieged them changed, but the hunger and fear were the same hunger and fear. This is the most worrying part.
Many of the hundreds of thousands of civilians in El Fasher and its surrounding camps are already on the verge of famine.
After the occupation of Zamzam camp, those refugees who had just fled there had to run for their lives again. But where can they escape?
The other four province cities in Darfur had long been controlled by the RSF, which had been the last refuge, and now cannot be held.
To make matters worse, the already fragile humanitarian relief corridor may become narrower after the fall of El Fasher.
When government forces were under control, it was difficult to get goods into the city, but at least there were channels.Now that the RSF was completely under control, would it allow international humanitarian organizations to enter?Would it use hunger to control civilians?These questions have no answers.
From a more macro perspective, the biggest victims of this civil war in Sudan have always been civilians.
The government army and the RSF beat you to death and death in order to fight for the ground, but the gunfire fell and broke the people's homes.
Hospitals, schools, residential areas, nothing is safe. Those who fled to camps for displaced persons thought they could catch their breath, but as a result, the camps became a battlefield.
The situation in Sudan now seems to be an endless cycle. The RSF has taken control of Darfur, the government forces have lost their western strongholds, and the balance of power between the two sides has changed, but the war will not end.
The RSF may use Darfur as a base to continue to expand into other regions; the government forces cannot just admit defeat and will definitely find a way to counterattack.
In this way, the war will continue to burn, more cities will become the second El Fasher, and more civilians will become refugees.
In fact, the international community has not paid much attention to the Sudanese civil war. Compared with other hot spots in the Middle East, Sudanese news appears much less frequently in the international media.
This may be due to Sudan’s relatively low geopolitical importance, or because the war is so complex that it is difficult for the outside world to intervene.
But whatever the reason, the suffering of the Sudanese people is real.
After the fall of El Fasher, the humanitarian crisis in Darfur will only deteriorate further.
Those who hadn’t eaten, now have no hope.
As the gunfire slowed down near the airport, hunger cries could really be the city’s only main tone.
This is not exaggerated rhetoric, but a harsh reality faced by 2.5 million people.
How long will the civil war in Sudan last?When will the people of the Fashis live a normal life?These questions no one can answer now.
The only thing that is certain is that in this power struggle, the first to be injured and the last to be saved will always be the unarmed civilians.