El-Fasher Siege - 2025 ().

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El-Fasher, 2023–25: a brief background

When Sudan’s war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted in April 2023, Darfur’s five state capitals fell one by one to the RSF—except El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur. Through much of 2023, El-Fasher was kept relatively calmer by a loose “neutrality” arrangement policed by Darfuri armed groups that had signed earlier peace deals (often called the Darfur Joint [or Protection] Force), even as clashes flared on the city’s edges.

That balance broke in early 2024. In April–May the RSF shifted to a major offensive to take El-Fasher—the last SAF stronghold in Darfur—tightening a siege, shelling the city, and seeking to sever the main roads in and out. Fighting spread into densely populated districts, markets and around key junctions, with repeated strikes on health and aid facilities. The U.N. Security Council responded in June 2024 with Resolution 2736, demanding de-escalation and unfettered aid access, underscoring the battle’s regional and humanitarian stakes.

By mid- to late-2024 the front hardened into a siege: RSF units and allied Arab militias pressed from multiple approaches, while the SAF garrison, local police and allied Darfuri movements (notably factions of the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement) held the city core and key installations. Periods of intense urban combat alternated with bombardment and probing attacks. Humanitarian conditions deteriorated sharply as aid routes were cut and mass displacement continued from camps and peri-urban areas into the already crowded city.

Into 2025, the siege tightened further. The U.N. warned that starvation loomed, particularly for families from the vast Zamzam displacement camp south of the city; Reuters reported new waves of flight after armed takeovers and violence around the camp in April 2025. Strategic objectives in repeated RSF pushes included isolating the SAF garrison, interdicting the roads north toward Mellit and west toward rural strongholds, and contesting the airport and adjacent districts; defenders focused on holding those corridors open and preventing a full encirclement.

Forces and objectives (for scenario framing)

Attacker (RSF and allied militias). Operational aim: finish the encirclement and seize El-Fasher by breaking the city’s inner defensive line. Practical objectives reflected in the fighting have been to: (1) cut the main approach roads and logistics corridors; (2) take or render unusable key nodes (airport area, central market/administrative quarter, major junctions like the Mellit Road axis); and (3) force the SAF and allied groups to withdraw or collapse inside the urban core.

Defender (SAF garrison with allied Darfur Joint/Protection Force factions). Operational aim: preserve the city as the last government holdout in Darfur and keep humanitarian access viable. Practical objectives have been to: (1) hold the inner city and security compounds; (2) keep at least one overland corridor open for relief and reinforcement; and (3) blunt assaults that would split the defense into isolated pockets.

Set in the thick of the 2024–25 siege, your scenario casts one player as the RSF commander tasked with tightening the ring and pushing into the city core, and the other as the SAF/Darfur Joint Force commander trying to keep lines open and prevent a decisive breach. Victory conditions can mirror the real contest: the attacker scores for sealing road corridors and taking key nodes; the defender scores for maintaining a contiguous line, retaining the airport/civic core, and keeping at least one corridor open long enough for relief to matter.

Key sources used: Reuters, Associated Press, the International Crisis Group, ACLED, and U.N. materials for the timeline, force composition, and humanitarian context.

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Units (Rapid Support Forces)

Units (Sudanese Armed Forces)