For the past two and a half years, events in war-torn Sudan have been characterized by wild swings — not only between which side in the conflict has the upper hand, but between moments of tentative hope and outright despair.

Could that be the case this week, as one of the war’s darkest moments was followed by at least a tiny step toward peace?

The nadir was reached last week, when the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — the paramilitary group that controls much of the west of the country — finally seized the city of El Fasher, the Sudanese army’s last remaining stronghold in the Darfur region, after an 18 month siege aimed at starving out the city’s resistance. (The RSF is the descendant of the infamous Janjaweed militias accused of atrocities during the mid-2000s Darfur genocide.)

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