At least 18 people have been killed in the Sudanese city of Omdurman as the war between the national army chief and his former deputy continues.
Dozens of people were also injured when the army shelled three neighbourhoods in the city, which lies next to the capital, Khartoum, residents said.
After more than 100 days of war, the bombardments added to a toll of at least 3,900 killed nationwide. The war between the army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and his rival Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, began on 15 April and has uprooted more than 3.3 million people from their homes.
Musa Hassan, whose aunt died in the Omdurman attack, said: “I just saw people fleeing right after the explosions hit the area. When you ask them where are you going, they say we don’t know but we are leaving, they were completely shocked. So many families have fled the area since last night.”
Mohamed Mansour, who lives in Omdurman, told AFP he had helped to pull eight bodies from the rubble of homes destroyed by the blasts. Another resident, Hagar Youssef, said: “Four people were killed in the house next door, including two children.”
The incident came after Gen Yasir al-Atta, the assistant commander-in-chief of the Sudan Armed Forces, announced his forces would be using “the most deadly force that the leader of the army would allow them to”.
The World Health Organization warned on Tuesday of the “catastrophic humanitarian crisis” facing Sudan, “with more than 67% of the country’s hospitals out of service”.
Healthcare and aid facilities have themselves frequently come under attack or been looted by both forces. Fighters have also been accused of sexual violence, reports that the WHO said it was “appalled by”.
Alleged sexual and gender-based crimes are a focus of a new investigation announced earlier this month by the international criminal court into alleged war crimes in Sudan.
Although there is no sign an end to the war is near, attempts at forging peace have taken place. The Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC), Sudan’s main civilian bloc, attended a two-day civilian meeting, which began on Monday in Cairo and sought to “restore the path of peace and stop the war in Sudan”, according to the FFC spokesperson, Jaafar Hassan.
The FFC was ousted from power in a 2021 coup orchestrated by Burhan and Dagalo, which derailed the country’s transition to democracy. The two generals later fell out in a feud that exploded into war.
US- and Saudi-brokered ceasefires were systematically violated, before Washington and Riyadh adjourned talks.
A quartet from east African regional bloc IGAD has also sought to mediate, but with little success.
AFP contributed to this report.
