A looming assault on a city in the Sudanese region of Darfur, where genocidal violence killed as many as 300,000 people two decades ago, has prompted warnings from U.N. and U.S. officials who fear that mass bloodshed may be imminent.
El Fasher is the last city held by Sudan’s military in Darfur and the latest flashpoint in a year-old civil war between Sudan’s military and the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group that Sudan’s military nurtured and that became a bitter rival.
If the R.S.F. were to seize El Fasher, the group could control about a third of Sudan, with the country split into rival fiefs. But experts said that an assault on El Fasher would be risky for the R.S.F., and many Western and Arab officials hope that international pressure can persuade both sides to back down.
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