Global Courant
Fighting in Khartoum and Darfur has intensified despite US sanctions imposed over the failure of ceasefire negotiations.
The Sudanese army has called in reinforcements to help battle its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), prompting residents of the capital Khartoum to fear the conflict will intensify.
Residents in the southern part of the capital reported seeing the reinforcement troops, in addition to an increased military presence from the RSF, Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan said Saturday from Omdurman, a town bordering Khartoum.
The Sudanese army has been trying to take control of an RSF military base there for two days. Residents have been warned to stay as far away from the base as possible, Morgan said.
Fighting continues elsewhere in the state of Khartoum and Darfur, despite United States sanctions imposed following the collapse of a ceasefire brokered by the United States and Saudi Arabia late Thursday.
“Fighter jets fly over the city of Omdurman. And there have been airstrikes by the military on RSF positions in the northern parts of the capital,” Morgan said.
“Sounds of artillery have also been reported in the center of the capital.”
Journalist Matt Nashed, speaking from neighboring Egypt, said the military appears to be trying to launch a much larger offensive in the capital.
“They want to try to recapture an area it has no control over… in Khartoum and the point of this is really to avoid losing face and build some influence before entering into negotiations with the Rapid Support Forces,” he said.
“The second reason would have to do with trying to maintain the minimal token support it still has from voters in Khartoum,” Nashed added.
A day earlier, Khartoum was rocked by shelling, with witnesses reporting “artillery fire” in the eastern part of the state and around the state television building in Omdurman.
On Wednesday, the country experienced its deadliest single attack since the conflict began with at least 18 killed and another 106 wounded, Morgan reported, adding that artillery shelling hit a market in Khartoum resulting in civilian deaths.
The ongoing fighting, which has lasted more than seven weeks since the conflict between dueling army and RSF generals broke out on April 15, has forced volunteers to bury 180 bodies recovered from combat zones without identification, the Sudanese Red Crescent said. Friday.
The ceasefire negotiations were designed to allow humanitarian actors to operate safely. But the Red Crescent volunteers have found it difficult to go through the streets to pick up the dead due to security restrictions.
In addition, aid groups are facing other issues, with the World Food Program (WFP) reporting this week that nearly 17,000 tons (15,400 metric tons) of food aid has been looted since the start of the conflict.
“The aid looted in El Obeid was destined for more than four million people in the western region of Darfur,” Morgan said, referring to one of the largest WFP logistics bases in Africa in the state of North Kordofan.
“Some of those we spoke to say they are not afraid of being hit by an artillery or an airstrike, but that because of the humanitarian situation they will die of starvation,” she added, referring to the humanitarian crisis.
More than 1,800 people have been killed, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, and at least 1.6 million people have been displaced within the country or across borders, many to Egypt, Chad and South Sudan, according to the United Nations have fled.
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