Rapid Support Forces Commander Killed in Sudan

The Sudanese army said on Friday that it had killed Ali Yaqoub Jibril, commander of the Central Darfur sector of the Rapid Support Forces, during a battle in El Fasher.

A statement by the Sudanese army said that it had thwarted a Rapid Support Forces attack on the city of El Fasher, noting that the Rapid Support Forces had suffered heavy losses in personnel.

The statement said that the Rapid Support Forces had launched an attack on El Fasher this morning, and that the armed forces and the joint force had thwarted "the attack and inflicted heavy losses on them, including hundreds of dead and wounded, including their commander, Ali Yaqoub, who was killed in the failed attack attempt."

The force, which consists of armed movements that have come out of neutrality and are fighting alongside the army, said in a statement that it had killed more than 1,000 of what it described as "Janjaweed mercenaries" and other Rapid Support Forces, led by Ali Yaqoub, the commander and supervisor of the El Fasher "massacres."