A Sudanese city has taken in many people fleeing war. Now the fighting has spread there.

Fighting in Sudan has spread to the outskirts of a major city that is a haven for displaced people and a center for aid groups. an eight-month war that has devastated Africa’s third largest country.

The Sudanese army and rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have clashed on the outskirts of Wad Madani, a town about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of the capital Khartoum where tens of thousands of people fled after the war began in April.

On Saturday morning, residents said army planes could be heard flying over the city, with at least one neighborhood nearby come under aerial bombardment. Many shops and businesses were closed and some residents piled their belongings onto buses and rickshaws as they prepared to leave the city.

“People are really scared,” said Faiz Mohamed, who fled Khartoum and has now moved to Port Sudan, a city on the Red Sea.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have done just that strengthened their control about the Darfur region in the west in recent months – even as it is gaining ground came at the expense of by brutal ethnic violence.

Heavy gunfire could be heard in several parts of the Wad Madani suburbs on Friday. According to witnesses and emergency workers, the fighting took place in fits and starts throughout the afternoon. At least two people were killed in the violence, and several others were injured, according to local civic groups known as the resistance committees.

Following these clashes, the governor of El Gezira state, a major breadbasket of which Wad Madani is the capital, announced a curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., Sudan News Agency reported. The United Nations said all humanitarian field missions in the state were suspended until further notice.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, said on Saturday she was “deeply concerned” by reports of the paramilitary group’s attack on the city. “I urge the RSF to refrain from attacks and for all parties to protect civilians at all costs,” she said said in a statement on social media.

The fighting could herald a new frontline in the war that has engulfed Sudan since April 15, when rival military factions clashed over who will dominate the northeast African country’s future.

More than 10,000 people attended reported killed and thousands injured, and experts believe the actual number of fatalities is much higher. Nearly 18 million of the country’s 46 million residents are faced with acute hungerAccording to the United Nations, that number was almost seven million people displaced in the conflict.

Peace efforts, backed by the United States and several East African countries, have been unsuccessful, with both sides insisting they are capable of outright victory.

Nearly 500,000 people have fled to Wad Madani and the wider Gezira state since April 15. arrive by Khartoum and the neighboring towns of Bahri and Omdurman. As the influx overwhelmed local services and sent food, fuel and housing prices soaring, dozens of local and international aid organizations also relocated their staff and quickly began operations there.

Now, observers say, the city faces the prospect of war.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces said this a statement On Friday, it announced that it aimed to “eliminate” the military and that it was “committed to ensuring the security and well-being” of the state and the city’s residents.

In early December, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken determined that the two warring parties involved each other had committed war crimes. He also accused the paramilitary forces and their allies of committing ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

And in Wad Madani, residents said the latest developments made them feel anything but safe. Humanitarian organizations are scrambling to deliver food and water to thousands of people fleeing violence and arriving in neighboring Sennar state.

With funding shortfalls and possible supply disruptions, aid workers say it will be difficult to expand their meager resources to support so many people now doubly displaced.

“Aid operations are further compromised, although we must stay and deliver as much as possible,” said Will Carter, Sudan director of the Norwegian Refugee Council, which has 28 staff in Wad Madani. “People fled to these sanctuary cities to get help, and now they face a terrible future.”