Artillery shelling and airstrikes cast pall of smoke over Sudan capital

Fierce battles raged in the Sudan capital Khartoum yesterday, as the warring Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) exchanged artillery shelling, amid airstrikes in old Omdurman, with clouds of smoke billowing above the capital. In Wad Madani, capital of El Gezira, indiscriminate airstrikes by the Sudanese Air Force left many people dead and injured. The situation in Sennar has been described as ‘relatively safe’.

The SAF and RSF exchanged artillery shelling in the areas of old Omdurman yesterday. The RSF targeted the SAF-controlled areas of old Omdurman and the El Sawrat neighbourhoods with mortar shells, while the SAF responded with heavy artillery targeting RSF positions in the southern Omdurman neighbourhoods of El Fitihab and El Salha.

Clouds of smoke billowed over the capital, enveloping the neighbourhoods of Khartoum’s Southern Belt, El Azhari, and El Nahda, which are adjacent to the military bases and El Medina El Riyadiya (Sports City), alongside areas in Sharg El Nil (East Nile) in Khartoum North (Khartoum Bahri).

The neighbourhoods of Jabra and El Sahafa surrounding the SAF Armoured Corps in Khartoum were subjected to intense artillery strikes.

Witnesses explained to Radio Dabanga that “areas in eastern Khartoum witnessed the flight of military aircraft and marches, which the RSF met with ground anti-aircraft weapons. Clouds of smoke rose around the SAF General Command in the centre of the city.”

People in Omdurman are suffering from water outages for more than a week, alongside poor communications, and wavering internet networks.

“The two main pumping stations in the area stopped working due to the lack of chlorine solution needed to purify the water, compelling people to spend long hours searching for water from those homes and neighbourhoods where there are wells. People travel long distances to find high ground to access cellular and internet network coverage,” residents explained.

Bombing, thefts

The Wad Madani Resistance Committees yesterday reported “many injuries and deaths due to indiscriminate bombing carried out by the SAF in various neighbourhoods”.

Public and private health centres and pharmacies in the El Gezira capital and most of the surrounding villages are completely out of service, and the contents of most of them has been stolen, the committee stated.

The resistance committees accused the RSF of stealing cars from homes in neighbourhoods and villages in the state and “the continued plundering of markets, stores, and homes by gangs and thieves with the help of the RSF”. The RSF has repeatedly denied such claims.

Sennar

The Sennar Youth Assembly has described the situation in the town of Sennar as “safe, stable, and witnessing calm, with the gradual return of some citizens, and recovery in the markets”.

However, the RSF is “still setting up bases in some villages and carrying out their crimes of displacing, terrorizing, and robbing defenceless citizens, while shelter homes are suffering from a severe shortage of food and medicine,” the youth assembly reported.

Their statement yesterday also said that all government institutions in Sennar were out of service, “but the Grand Hospital of Singa and some other hospitals, private clinics, and pharmacies returned to work”.

They also pointed to the fluctuation and unavailability of some communications networks in Sennar state.