People trapped in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, and its twin city of Omdurman say civilians are being deliberately targeted in shelling by the warring parties.
A woman who had been helping wounded soldiers was killed along with her three children and six neighbours when her home was shelled by Sudanese army forces earlier this week.
More than two-thirds of Khartoum’s hospitals have been closed or destroyed since the conflict broke out in April between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which began as a power struggle between the head of the RSF, Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, and the army chief and Sudan’s de facto leader, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
More than 1 million people have fled from Sudan to neighbouring states, with many doctors among those who had the means to leave the cities. The only functioning hospital in Omdurman is located in an army-controlled area.
Only half of the population are estimated to remain in the capital, including those with no relatives or friends elsewhere to go to; many of those left behind are elderly and disabled. Rents in safer parts of the country have shot up as demand for accommodation there has soared.
Wounded RSF fighters have been turning to traditional healers for treatment in their strongholds in Omdurman, on the west bank of the Nile River. But the healers’ homes have in turn become a target for shelling.
The woman killed on Monday had treated dozens of wounded soldiers, as well as injured civilians, using homemade medicines. A member of the non-Arab Masalit community – thousands of whom were killed in June in an ethnic cleansing by Arab militias backed by the RSF in the West Darfur region of Sudan – she died along with her sons and neighbours when her house was shelled multiple times. There were no RSF soldiers inside at the time, say neighbours.
Saadia Ali* saw two of her cousins killed in the attack and a third lose a leg. She said: “When the first shell hit her house, the neighbours were shocked and ran out to see what was going on, but another shell was [fired] shortly after, killing all of them. Not a single RSF fighter was harmed.”
One of the shells hit the neighbouring house of a restaurant owner, killing his son and wounding the father.
The dead had to be hurriedly buried in a mass grave in west Omdurman. “It was too dangerous to have a proper burial,” Ali said. “People also are exhausted – they could not dig 10 different graves. It is awful.”
Another victim, a young woman, had to be buried incomplete as only parts could be found. “People went to search for her,” Ali said, adding that the explosion had sent bodies flying.
In Omdurman many of the trapped civilians are from ethnic groups in Kordofan and Darfur, the two regions in Sudan where the war is being fought most viciously, with local militias involved.
Residents told the Guardian that it was both too expensive to rent in a safer place elsewhere and too dangerous to travel, with reports of people from certain ethnic groups being targeted and detained by the army and secret police.
One man standing with his family at the scene of Monday’s attack said: “We don’t know where to go – it just feels so frightening.”
Fighting has intensified in Omdurman since 8 August, with hundreds of soldiers dead on both sides and dozens of civilians killed in crossfire. Many atrocities are going unreported amid the chaos of airstrikes and army shellings, with communication further hindered by regular internet blackouts.
* Name has been changed to protect their identity
