Ahmed Abdul Rahman can hear the thud of artillery from where he lies in a makeshift cluster of tents in the Sudanese city of el-Fasher.

The 13-year-old boy was injured in a recent shelling attack.

“I feel pain in my head and my legs,” he says weakly.

For 17 months the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have besieged el-Fasher, located in their ethnic heartland of Darfur, and now they’re closing in on key military sites in the city.

The conflict in Sudan broke out in 2023 following a power struggle between the top commanders of the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF