Key Findings:
• Yale HRL can confirm humanitarian reports of armed forces operating within civilian neighborhoods in Nyala. RSF and SAF are assessed to be clashing in very close proximity to one another, with visible damage to civilian dwellings observed in satellite imagery. It is probable that fighting in an urban environment will become protracted.
• Nyala is home to close to 500,000 IDPs who are vulnerable due to conflict. At least as many as 50,000 people have left Nyala since 11 August 2023, and at least 120,000 people are reported to have arrived in East Darfur, likely as a direct result of clashes in Nyala.
• The Turkish hospital in Nyala reportedly remains the only hospital that is still in service across the city. Humanitarian aid has been unable to reach the city with medical and health supplies reported to be critically low as of 21 August 2023.
• Nyala is 195 km away from El-Fasher. Fighting in Nyala and control of the road linking the two cities will determine the human security conditions at El-Fasher, regardless of the battle’s outcome.