SUDANESE paramilitary forces have seized a key military base in the army’s last stronghold in western Darfur, killing dozens of civilians and destroying vital infrastructure, aid and medical groups said today.

The fighting in el-Fasher, capital of North Darfur, marks a major setback for Sudan’s army in a war that has gripped the country since 2023.

Medical organisations reported scores of civilian deaths, with the UN confirming that more than 26,000 people have fled their homes.

El-Fasher’s fall to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) could herald another split in Sudan, more than a decade after South Sudan gained independence.

Videos posted online showed RSF fighters celebrating in and around the captured army base.

Other footage, however, showed fighters beating and shooting people as they tried to flee, and using racist slurs against members of the Darfuri African tribes.

The UN Human Rights Office said RSF fighters carried out “summary executions of civilians” in el-Fasher, with evidence of “ethnic motivations for killings.”

UN human rights chief Volker Turk warned that “the risk of further large-scale, ethnically motivated atrocities is mounting by the day.”

Medical groups said RSF forces looted and destroyed hospitals, describing the assault as a “heinous massacre.”

The Darfur Network for Human Rights reported more than 1,000 civilians detained, including one of the city’s few remaining journalists, warning of “acts amounting to war crimes.”

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said hundreds of thousands of civilians were “trapped and terrified — shelled, starving, and without access to food, healthcare or safety,” and called for urgent humanitarian access.

Satellite imagery reviewed by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab appeared to confirm RSF control of the city, showing widespread destruction across the military compound.

Elsewhere, the Sudan Doctor Network said that RSF fighters killed at least 47 people, including nine women, in the town of Bara in Kordofan over the weekend.

The RSF evolved from the Janjaweed militias that terrorised Darfur in the 2000s.

The war, which began in April 2023, has now killed over 40,000 people and displaced more than 14 million, creating what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The International Criminal Court said it is investigating alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan.