A supposed haven in Sudan falls to a genocidal militia

The gunfirersfsafsafsafrsfsafrsf on the outskirts of Wad Madani, one of Sudan’s biggest cities, began at dawn on December 15th. Panicked civilians began to flee. The attack by fighters from the Rapid Support Forces (), a paramilitary force, was met with air strikes by the Sudanese Armed Forces (), the regular army. After a brief lull in which the claimed victory, gun-toting militiamen then stormed into the city centre. As they did so, soldiers abandoned their posts and slunk away to the south.The fall of Wad Madani, about 200km south-east of Khartoum, the capital, comes five years after pro-democracy street protests erupted that eventually forced out Sudan’s long-time dictator, Omar al-Bashir. But Sudan’s political transition was derailed in 2021 by a coup staged jointly by the and the . In April their edgy alliance collapsed into civil war. Some 7m people have been displaced within Sudan. Another 1.4m have fled to neighbouring countries, many to Chad, after genocidal violence against the Masalit, a black African tribe, by the and allied militias.