Sudan: Hundreds of thousands flee as RSF ‘capture’ Wad Madani, raising fears of partition

The strategic Sudanese city of Wad Madani appeared on Tuesday to have fallen to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who have been fighting the Sudanese army for months.

As many as 300,000 people have fled fighting on a new front in Sudan’s war, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Monday night.

The city, located 135 kilometers southeast of the capital Khartoum, had been a haven for hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

Key humanitarian groups say they have been forced to suspend work in Wad Madani or leave. Local pro-democracy activists said the RSF had set up checkpoints throughout the city and were looting homes and cars, with no army or police present.

Since the start of the conflict, the city had been governed by the army and was a key hub for humanitarian organizations largely removed from the front lines of the fighting.