At least ten die in airstrikes on residential areas in Sudan capital

At least ten people were killed in Khartoum state during airstrikes and shelling by the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) over the weekend. In particular Mayo in south Khartoum and El Sawra and Ombadda in Omdurman were hit. A Sudanese Sufi sheikh has called on the Saudi American negotiations platform in Jeddah to resume the talks between the warring parties.

The fierce fighting between the Sudanese army and its paramilitary counterpart in Khartoum continues unabated, with an increasing number of civilians being hit.

In a statement on Sunday, the Emergency Lawyers condemned the killing of nine people as a result of the aerial bombardments and artillery shelling on Saturday.

A man and two of his children were killed in Ombadda, Omdurman. Many other were injured and a number of houses were damaged.

Five people, including four from the same family, died after being hit by missiles fired by the RSF in El Sarwa 2 in Omdurman. Several others were wounded.

In the densely populated Mayo neighbourhood in south Khartoum, a drone strike killed a woman and wounded 17 others.

Emergency lawyers accused the army of besieging the Kalakla neighbourhoods in southwest Khartoum and preventing the entry of any consumer goods from Jebel Aulia.

They further reported that the SAF has set up an outpost near the El Amal Hospital on the highway leading to Kosti. “The soldiers investigate all vehicles and confiscate all consumables.”

The Khartoum Southern Belt* Emergency Room said yesterday that the aerial bombardments on parts of the large Mayo neighbourhood on Saturday killed two people and wounded 20 others, including six children.

The Abulhol Medical Centre was completely destroyed. Three neighbouring houses were damaged. The western side of the Bashair Hospital was hit by missiles.

Médicins Sans Frontières (MSF) that has staff working in the Bashair University Hospital in the area, on Saturday expressed its concern about the intensification of attacks on residential areas.

“18 injured people were rushed to the emergency room after shelling within 160 metres of #Bashair Teaching Hospital. One person died before they could reach the hospital. Shrapnel landed inside the hospital compound,” MSF said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday.

“We are deeply concerned for the people in Khartoum. Every week now, patients are rushed to hospitals after attacks on markets, residential areas. Today’s shelling was less than 200m from a hospital. The situation is awful, and it is not improving,” Pietro Curtaz, MSF Head of Mission in Sudan said.

The neighbourhood’s resistance committees of Imtidad Nasir, where people also had to dive under their beds because of the airstrikes and heavy shelling, reported the complete destruction of a house in the neighbourhood on Saturday.

In Omdurman, the resistance committee of El Sarwa Block 2 on Sunday confirmed that five people were killed, including four from one family. “The people have been experiencing difficult and bitter moments for the past two days because of the continuous bombing and shelling.”

Call

Sheikh Majzoub El Jeili, head of the Samani El Majzoubi Sufi order in Sudan and the chair of the order’s general assembly, Haroun El Tayeb, have called on the Saudi American negotiations platform in Jeddah to resume talks between the two warring parties, “in accordance with what was stated in the Jeddah Declaration of Principles on the protection of civilians”.

The principles agreement, signed by representatives of the SAF and the RSF in the Saudi city of Jeddah on May 11 stipulates the departure of the RSF from the homes of civilians and other buildings, the cessation of the fighting, and the return of the millions of displaced to their homes. 

Sheikh Majzoub told Radio Dabanga that the Jeddah platform must also accommodate rebel leaders Abdelwahid El Nur and Abdelaziz El Hilu “to comprehensively solve all military issues and integrate all armed groups into one professional army”.

Radio Dabanga reported on Thursday that SAF commander  Abdelfattah El Burhan and RSF leader Mohamed ‘Hemedti’ Dagalo had arrived in Saudi Arabia, raising hope for the country’s population that the fighting would come to an end soon. No reports followed, so the news may have been a hoax. El Burhan visited Atbara and Dongola in northern Sudan this weekend.

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* 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.