Five killed by artillery shelling in Sudan capital

Five people were killed and many injured in northern Omdurman yesterday because of heavy artillery shelling in Omdurman and Khartoum North. Southern Khartoum was calm yesterday, and two days of fighting ended in Jebel Aulia in southwest Khartoum. 

Omdurman residents reported artillery shelling in parts of the capital city and the centre of Omdurman and Ombadda. Shelling also continued in Sharg El Nil (East Nile) in Khartoum North. A reconnaissance aircraft flew over El Salha in southern Omdurman.  

Many people have condemned the Qouro Market massacre in Mayo, southern Khartoum. On Sunday, at least 46 people were killed and over 45 injured due to airstrikes aimed at the market. The hospital “turned into a bloodbath as an overwhelming number of patients with serious injuries began to stream in,” Mohamed Kandasha, spokesperson for emergency medical response at the Bashair University Hospital, told Radio Dabanga. 

Kandasha further reported that the neighbourhoods in south Khartoum were calm “after a bloody day.” 

Clementine Nkweta-Salami, the UN secretary-general’s deputy special representative for Sudan with the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), condemned the indiscriminate attacks on residential areas in Khartoum. She called them “unacceptable and a violation of international humanitarian law.” 

The Darfur Bar Association called on the parties to the conflict to stop fighting immediately following the Qouro Market massacre.

The lawyers called for the warring parties to “sit at peaceful negotiating tables.” Their statement, published yesterday, also called on the regional and international community to intensify their efforts to stop the war and violations that affect innocent and unarmed citizens.  

Hostilities continue to show no signs of abating in Khartoum as clashes resumed between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF throughout the week.  

Sudan’s Sovereignty Council head Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan visited Qatar last week, where he said in a press statement that the rebellion by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) would “soon be quashed, ushering in a period of peace and stability for Sudan”. 

In an audio recording posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Monday, Commander Mohamed ‘Hemedti’ Dagalo stated that the RSF remained in Khartoum without any “intention of seeking control over Sudan,” but they were determined to continue “fighting until the last soldier”. 

* Khartoum’s Southern Belt is part of the periphery of the capital inhabited by people earlier displaced by wars in Darfur, Kordofan, and Blue Nile region and South Sudanese refugees, and by impoverished farmers from various parts of the country who lost their lands to banks.