2023-05-18 23:38:40
Witnesses said that intense air strikes targeted areas in the south of the Sudanese capital, coinciding with the outbreak of clashes near an army camp in the framework of the conflict that caused the displacement of about a million people and left the residents of Khartoum struggling for their lives.
Witnesses added that they heard the sound of air strikes by the army on the paramilitary RSF in several residential neighborhoods in southern Khartoum, including near Camp Taiba, while a police reserve force allied with the army was fighting the RSF on the ground.
It was also possible to hear the sound of strikes on the other bank of the Nile, in the eastern Nile region.
The army relies mainly on air power and heavy artillery in an attempt to expel the Rapid Support Forces, which were deployed in large areas of Khartoum and the cities of Bahri and Omdurman, which are separated by the Nile River from the capital, after the outbreak of fighting on April 15.
exacerbation of the humanitarian crisis
- Salah al-Din Othman, 35, a resident of Khartoum, said, “The shelling and clashes do not stop, and there is no room even to flee from the homes. All our money has ended, and the monthly salaries have not been paid.”
- “We are afraid that even if we leave our homes, gangs will come to loot everything in the house… We are living a nightmare of fear and poverty, and there is no electricity and no government that cares about us.”
- The violence spread, according to witnesses, to a distance of 1,000 kilometers west of Khartoum in Nyala, one of the largest cities in Sudan and the capital of South Darfur state. A witness said that the sound of heavy artillery fire, including from tanks, was heard for the first time since the local truce was declared.
- Witnesses said armed gangs began carrying out robberies in El Obeid, another major city and commercial center in North Kordofan state.
- It is believed that the commander of the Sudanese army, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the commander of the Rapid Support Forces, Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, remained in Khartoum throughout the fighting.
Yesterday, Wednesday, the army released a video showing Al-Burhan, dressed in a military uniform, greeting the troops, apparently at the army headquarters in central Khartoum.
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