After 18 months of surviving forced starvation and shelling by the paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the regional capital and symbolic battleground of Al Fashir is on the verge of full military collapse.

On Sunday, the RSF advanced into the heart of the city and captured the 6th Infantry Division of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in central Al Fashir after three days of intensified ground battles.

In propaganda videos shared on RSF social media channels, troops waved their assault rifles in the yard of the garrison and celebrated victory in front of a bullet-ridden wall marked with an emblem of the Sudanese military.

They claim to have taken over the city and completed their military control of the Darfur region.

Sudanese army soldiers, civilian resistance fighters and first responders have denounced the RSF’s declaration of full victory and say battles are ongoing to fend off the city’s capture.

A wedge of military-held territory remains on the western edge of Al Fashir where remaining civilians are squeezed in with troops fighting to push outwards and regain key sites lost to the RSF.

“I left because all the residents and forces have been intensely concentrated in Al-Daraja Owla neighbourhood. It was too much and people started fleeing,” said aid worker and resident Adam al Rashid, who left Al Fashir on Saturday.

“The RSF was moving people out and attacking others. So many have been killed by gunfire and shelling from battles. It was clear this was coming. The RSF has been advancing on the 6th infantry division for three days.”

Around 5,000 people have fled Al Fashir since 23 October, according to initial assessments by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

Videos shared on RSF channels show masses fleeing on foot – some filmed by an RSF surveillance drone scattered across a field and others left in long, sombre queues as RSF soldiers yelled at them from inside their trucks.

Other videos show men of fighting age rounded up and kneeling on the ground as RSF troops yell at them, “You are all army”.

Sources tell Sky News that those fleeing are facing mass arrests and extra-judicial killings on their way out.

There is currently a telecommunications blackout in Al Fashir. An ominous sign that has marked previous takeovers by the paramilitary group, including the city of Al Geneina where the United Nations (UN) accused the RSF of killing 10,000 to 15,000 people.

Read more:
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“I am very concerned about the life of my relatives, the journalists and the doctors inside the city of Al Fashir. All of us saw what happened in Al Geneina and we are scared that will happen in Al Fashir too,” said Mohamed Zakarea, a journalist from Al Fashir who fled the city a year ago after five months of the RSF siege.

“The people are waiting for the Sudanese army – for the war planes and the air drops. If all of this doesn’t happen, then I’m afraid to say that Al Fashir is falling.”

A hurricane due to hit Jamaica and Cuba has intensified and could reach Category 5 – the highest – when it makes landfall either this evening or early on Tuesday, forecasters have warned.

It is expected to bring catastrophic floods, landslides and storm surges to the region, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

Jamaican authorities have urged residents to evacuate to one of 900 shelters set up across the island.

And on Sunday night, Prime Minister Andrew Holness issued mandatory evacuation orders for Port Royal in the capital Kingston and six other areas.

Storm Melissa currently has maximum sustained winds of up to 140mph (220kph) and is expected to strengthen as it heads towards Jamaica.

Desmond McKenzie, minister of local government, said: “Many of these communities will not survive this flooding.
“Kingston is low, extremely low… No community in Kingston is immune from flooding.”

Both international airports are closed.

The slow-moving storm has already killed at least three people in Haiti and a fourth person in the Dominican Republic, where another person remains missing.

Read more from Sky News:
24 hours in kill zone: Where Ukrainians fight for their lives
Key city in Sudan on brink of falling to paramilitary group

The NHC said Melissa is expected to bring 38cm (15 inches) to 76cm (30 inches) of rain to Jamaica and southern Hispaniola with a local maximum of more than a metre (40 inches).

Eastern Cuba is expected to receive 25cm (10 inches) to 38cm (15 inches), with local amounts of up to 51cm (20 inches).

There are warnings of extensive damage to infrastructure, power and communication outages, and the isolation of many communities in Jamaica.

Dana Morris Dixon, Jamaica’s information minister, said the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency is ready to provide assistance, and several international partners have already pledged support.

“We’ve heard the rainfall numbers. They’re numbers we’ve never heard before,” she said.

A US warship has docked in the capital of Trinidad and Tobago, as US President Donald Trump increases military pressure on Venezuela.

The guided missile destroyer, USS Gravely, is in addition to the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford, which is moving closer to Venezuela.

President Trump has accused the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro, of being the leader of an organised crime gang but has not offered any evidence.

President Maduro has called the deployment of warships an attempt by the US government to “invent a new eternal war” against his country.

Government officials in Trinidad and Tobago and from the US said the warship will remain in Trinidad until Thursday for training exercises.

Venezuela’s government has since issued a statement condemning what it called a military provocation by Trinidad and Tobago and the US.

The country claimed it captured a group of mercenaries “with direct information of the American intelligence agency” who intended to carry out a false flag attack in the region.

The statement from vice president Delcy Rodriguez did not give any details or evidence of the alleged false flag attack.

Jenifer Neidhart de Ortiz, the US Embassy’s charge d’affaires, said the exercises sought to “address shared threats like transnational crime and build resilience through training, humanitarian missions, and security efforts”.

A senior military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the move was only recently scheduled.

Read more: Inside Pablo Escobar’s home city where drugs are readily available

The presence of the ship is controversial for some.

“This is a warship in Trinidad, which will be anchored here for several days just miles off Venezuela when there’s a threat of war,” said David Abdulah, leader of the Movement for Social Justice political party.

“That’s an abomination.”

Read more:
US accused of ‘inventing a war’
Survivors reported after boat strike
US destroys ‘drug smuggling submarine’

Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is a supporter of the deadly US strikes on suspected drug boats in waters off Venezuela.

On Friday, the US secretary of war claimed six “narco-terrorists” had been killed in a strike on an alleged drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean Sea.

Trump may have another motive

Stuart Ramsay

Chief correspondent

The question is simple – is this really all about President Trump’s war on drugs in South America?

I doubt it. A sledgehammer to crack a nut that isn’t even there.

There are a few reasons to doubt the American government’s stated aim of wiping out these so-called “narco terrorist” gangs threatening the US from Venezuela, even after one takes out of the equation the sort of equipment the military is deploying – which isn’t what they would need for effective drug smuggling interdiction.

While the president acknowledges that the synthetic opioid fentanyl is a huge killer in the US (which it is) and is supplied by drug gangs (which it is), to blame Venezuela for fentanyl production is simply incorrect.

Mexican cartels produce fentanyl with precursors largely supplied from China, and it is from Mexico – America’s neighbour – that the fentanyl is smuggled directly into the US across its southern border.

Venezuela isn’t involved in this fentanyl business in any meaningful way, and I know this because I have reported from the Sinaloa cartel’s fentanyl production labs in Mexico.

Read the full analysis here

Pete Hegseth said his military had bombed a vessel, which he claimed was operated by Tren de Aragua – a Venezuelan gang that was designated a terror group by Washington in February.

Speaking during a White House news conference last week, Donald Trump argued the campaign against suspected smugglers from Venezuela would help tackle the opioid crisis in the US.

“Every boat that we knock out, we save 25,000 American lives. So every time you see a boat, and you feel badly you say, ‘Wow, that’s rough’. It is rough, but if you lose three people and save 25,000 people,” he said.

Some Democratic politicians have expressed concerns that the strikes risk dragging the US into a war with Venezuela because of their proximity to the South American country’s coast.

Others have condemned the attacks as extrajudicial killings that would not stand up in a court of law.