Al-Malha is one of the towns in the vast desert between Sudan and Libya, where the Joint Forces and the RSF have battled for months.

A paramilitary attack killed at least 45 civilians in the North Darfur town of al-Malha, according to an initial toll shared by activists Saturday.

The RSF, at war with the army since April 2023, said on Thursday it had seized the town in Sudan’s vast western region of Darfur. Al-Malha lies at the foot of a mountainous region 200 kilometres (124 miles) northeast of the North Darfur state capital El-Fasher.

The local volunteer aid group in El-Fasher, known as a resistance committee, gave a “preliminary list of the victims of al-Malha massacre” which it blamed on the Rapid Support Forces, with 15 people still unidentified.

Soldiers of the Sudanese army or affiliated forces pose for a picture while pumping their fists at the damaged presidential palace after recapturing the complex from RSF paramilitaries in Khartoum on March 21, 2025.

Nearly all of Darfur, a region the size of France, is under control of the RSF. The paramilitaries have tried for months but so far failed to capture El-Fasher, and on Friday received a blow when the army recaptured the presidential palace in Sudan’s capital Khartoum, around 800 kilometres away.

In a statement, the RSF said they had “encircled the enemy… leaving more than 380 dead” in al-Malha.

A coalition of armed groups known as the Joint Forces, fighting alongside the army, has repelled RSF attacks and intercepted paramilitary supply routes from Chad and Libya.

Al-Malha is one of the northernmost towns in the vast desert between Sudan and Libya, where the Joint Forces and the RSF have battled for months.

Soldiers of the Sudanese army or affiliated forces pose for a picture while pumping their fists at the damaged presidential palace after recapturing the complex from RSF paramilitaries in Khartoum on March 21, 2025. Sudan’s army recaptured the presidential palace in Khartoum from the Rapid Support Forces on March 21, dealing a major blow to the paramilitaries who responded with drone attacks that killed a news crew and soldiers.

Following months of army gains in central Sudan, including key victories in the capital, analysts say the RSF is determined to consolidate its hold on Darfur.

The war which erupted in April 2023 has killed tens of thousands, uprooted more than 12 million and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises, according to the United Nations.

It has plunged three displacement camps near El-Fasher into famine, a UN-backed assessment said.

In the Zamzam and Abu Shouk camps, which together house an estimated million displaced people, local monitors reported days-long queues for drinking water as a result of an RSF siege. (AFP)

•People wave flags and chant slogans as they celebrate on the streets of Port Sudan on March 21, 2025, after the army retook the presidential palace in Khartoum from paramilitaries. The Sudanese army recaptured the presidential palace in Khartoum from the Rapid Support Forces on March 21, dealing a major blow to the paramilitaries who responded with drone attacks that killed a news crew and soldiers. (Photo by Ebrahim HAMID / AFP)