Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces said Thursday they had overrun Um Kadadah, a key town on the road to El-Fasher, the last city in Darfur still in the hands of their regular army foes.
"Our forces took full control of the strategic town of Um Kadadah," an RSF spokesman said in a statement, adding that hundreds of members of its garrison had been killed.
There was no immediate comment from the regular army.
The paramilitaries' advance came after their shelling of besieged El-Fasher killed 12 people on Wednesday, the army and activists said.
The conflict in Sudan has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million since a struggle for power between rival generals erupted into full-blown war in April 2023.
Famine has been declared in parts of the country, including displacement camps around El-Fasher, and is likely to spread, according to a UN-backed assessment.
The RSF controls most of Sudan's vast western region of Darfur. The paramilitaries have besieged El-Fasher for months, and fighting there has escalated.
On Wednesday the United Nations humanitarian office OCHA said conditions in Darfur are rapidly deteriorating.
"In North Darfur state, more than 4,000 people have been newly displaced in the past week alone due to escalating violence in El-Fasher, as well as in Zamzam displacement camp south of the city and other areas," OCHA said on its website.
The RSF also controls parts of the south.
The army retook the capital Khartoum in late March. It holds sway in the east and north, leaving Africa's third-largest country divided in two.
Early in the war, the United States and Saudi Arabia conducted mediation, but multiple ceasefires collapsed.
On Wednesday the US and Saudi foreign ministers met in Washington.
They "agreed that the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces must return to peace talks, protect civilians, open humanitarian corridors, and return to civilian governance", a US State Department statement said after the meeting.
With AFP
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