Air strikes pounded the outskirts of Sudan’s capital Khartoum overnight and on Saturday morning, as conflict in Sudan’s capital Khartoum reached its sixth week, trapping residents in a humanitarian catastrophe and displacing more than a million people.
Fighting between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has resulted in a breakdown in law and order as well as theft, which both sides blame on the other. Food, currency, and basics are fast depleting.
Eyewitnesses claimed air strikes on southern Omdurman and northern Bahri, the two cities across the Nile from Khartoum that make up Sudan’s “triple capital.” According to eyewitnesses, several of the hits occurred near the Omdurman state broadcaster.
Eyewitnesses in Khartoum said that the situation was relatively calm, although sporadic gunshots could be heard.
The conflict, which began on April 15, has displaced almost 1.1 million people internally and into neighbouring countries. Some 705 people have been killed and at least 5,287 injured, according to the World Health Organisation.
Talks sponsored by the United States and Saudi Arabia in Jeddah have not been fruitful, and the two sides have accused each other of violating multiple ceasefire agreements.
“We faced heavy artillery fire early this morning; the whole house was shaking,” Sanaa Hassan, a 33-year-old living in the al-Salha neighbourhood of Omdurman, told newsmen by phone.
“It was terrifying; everyone was lying under their beds. What’s happening is a nightmare,” she said..
The RSF is embedded in residential districts, drawing almost continual air strikes by the regular armed forces.
In recent days, ground fighting has flared once again in the Darfur region, in the cities of Nyala and Zalenjei.
Both sides blamed each other in statements late on Friday for sparking the fighting in Nyala, one of the country’s largest cities, which had for weeks been relatively calm due to a locally-brokered truce.
A local activist told newsmen there were sporadic gun clashes near the city’s main market, close to army headquarters, on Saturday morning. Almost 30 people have died in the two previous days of fighting, according to activists.
The war broke out in Khartoum after disputes over plans for the RSF to be integrated into the army and over the future chain of command under an internationally backed deal to shift Sudan towards democracy following decades of conflict-ridden autocracy.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) announced late on Friday that it will provide more than $100 million to Sudan and countries receiving fleeing Sudanese, including much-needed food and medical aid.
“It’s hard to convey the extent of the suffering occurring right now in Sudan,” said agency head Samantha Power.
