WAD MADANI - Fighting between two rival generals has spread to cities in war-ravaged Sudan's south, witnesses said, raising concerns for hundreds of thousands who have fled violence in the Darfur region.
The vast western region as well as the capital Khartoum have seen some of the worst bloodshed since fighting erupted on April 15 between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Battles resumed late Thursday in the North Darfur state capital of El Fasher, witnesses said, disrupting nearly two months of calm in the densely populated city that has become a shelter from the shelling, looting, rapes and summary executions reported in other parts of Darfur.
"This is the biggest gathering of civilians displaced in Darfur, with 600,000 people in El Fasher," said Nathaniel Raymond of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health.
One resident told AFP: "As night fell, we heard battles with heavy weapons from the city's east."
Witnesses also reported fighting in Al-Fulah, the capital of West Kordofan state which border Darfur.
The conflict had already expanded to North Kordofan state, a commercial and transportation hub between Khartoum and parts of Sudan's south and west.