Battles between the army and the RSF continue unabated in Sudan

Clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and its paramilitary counterpart, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), continue in various parts of the country. Artillery shelling led to the death of a person in El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, yesterday. The Sudanese Air Force bombed RSF targets in South and North Darfur, El Gezira, and Sennar, killing two people Wad Madani, El Gezira. The RSF occupied Mellit in North Darfur and plundered an army base in El Rahad, North Kordofan.

Late on Wednesday evening and yesterday morning, warplanes bombed neighbourhoods in El Fasher and Nyala. Listeners in the North Darfur capital told Radio Dabanga that the air raids did not cause any casualties. People reported from Nyala, capital of South Darfur, that the aerial bombardments targeted a site in the Kishlingo area used by the RSF for logistical purposes.

In central Sudan, military aircraft continued to bomb areas near Wad El Haddad in the south of El Gezira yesterday. On Wednesday, two civilians were killed in aerial bombardments of Wad Madani, capital of El Gezira.

The Emergency Lawyers group reported the death of two people in an RSF attack on Shakira El Wadi village earlier this week.

The resistance committees of El Hasaheisa accused the RSF of kidnapping a girl from the town and gang-raping her. They also reported on their Facebook page that the villages of Um Maliha, El Mureibiya, Hafeer Mekki, and Tabit El Reefi in the area were subjected to widespread attacks and plundering during the past days.

In Sharg (East) Sennar warplanes continued to fly over the area throughout the day and dropped bombs near villages of the Sennar Sugar Factory, a resident of Garsli told Radio Dabanga yesterday.

In Khartoum state, an army force attacked the area of the El Jeili Oil Refinery yesterday. The RSF announced that the attack had been repelled.

The resistance committees of El Mansoura in Omdurman reported that life returned to normal in the neighbourhood after fierce clashes on Wednesday.

The Ombadda Emergency Room 17 reported “a noticeable increase in plundering and thefts”. The supply of drinking water “operates partially and intermittently,” the emergency room reported on its Facebook page.

The neighbourhood suffers from a power outage since November 8 and a communications blackout for nearly four months, with Internet only available via Star Link “in a very narrow range at high financial costs”.

Southern Khartoum neighbourhoods witnessed RSF targets attacked with drones that day.

Kordofan

In the state capital of El Obeid, artillery shelling continued between the RSF and the paramilitary Central Reserve Police forces yesterday, which led to the death of one person when a missile hit their house in the El Salam neighbourhood.

People living in Abu Dakna in El Rahad, bordering South Kordofan, reported that an RSF force attacked the SAF base in the area yesterday morning and seized vehicles and weapons.

The paramilitaries attacked the Sirda base around 6 am in the morning. “An exchange of fire took place for about 45 minutes, killing an unknown number of army soldiers,” a witness to Radio Dabanga. “The SAF managed to repel two earlier RSF attacks on the base, but this time they lost the battle.

“The militiamen did not stay long. They seized seven four-wheel drive vehicles, weapons, and ammunition, before withdrawing towards El Rahad town, Others went in the direction of the El Samih-Um Rawaba road.”

The RSF also attacked the villages of Teiba, Shukero, and Kandikero, and robbed the residents of their motorcycles and livestock. “The dead, wounded, and missing people have not been counted yet.”

The residents of Sidra and neighbouring villages took shelter in the nearby mountains, the source said. “The army soldiers of the base fled to the same mountains.”

People in Muglad, West Kordofan, complain about the proliferation of firearms in the area and the absence of the rule of law. “More and more civilians want to defend themselves.”

They described the situation in Muglad as “normal, except for warplanes launching airstrikes in the vicinity of the town”. One of them added that “the hospital here is operating at about 50 per cent of its capacity”.

North Darfur

The 45,000 displaced who sought refuge in Kassab camp in Kutum, which is under control of the RSF since June last year, are living in fear, not only because of the repeated aerial bombardments on the area by the Sudanese Air Force but also because the paramilitaries are assaulting them.

Speaking to Radio Dabanga, community leader Sheikh Ibrahim Abdallah explained that the displaced do not dare to leave the camp for a distance of more than one kilometre for fear of being attacked by roaming bandits and RSF troops. He noted the lack of job opportunities and the ending of financial aid has stopped, and appealed to organisations to intervene urgently.

The road between Kutum and El Fasher is closed due to the insecurity in the region. “Gunmen have set up random check-points where they assault and rob people as they like,” the sheikh said. “Two days ago, two people were killed and five others were injured.”

The RSF seized control of Mellit earlier this week after fierce battles with SAF soldiers and fighters of the rebel movements supporting the army.

The RSF commander in Mellit, Maj Gen Ali Yagoub, immediately dissolved the locality’s emergency committee and its subcommittees as “they are cooperating with the government headed by [SAF Commander] El Burhan”.

In a video recording on Tuesday, the RSF commander pledged to protect all the residents of the area. The RSF reopened the customs office and the police station in Mellit, which he said had returned to normal. His forces were allowing “all people coming from all parts of Sudan, El Debba [in northern Sudan], and from Libya, to complete the customs procedures in the town”.

In El Fasher, the Darfur Joint Protection Force, made-up of combatants of rebel movements announced on Wednesday that the city witnessed airdrops of supplies and military equipment for the army the day before. Following violent battles on Tuesday, the joint force inspected the sites of the popular resistance in the eastern and southern parts of the city and in the Naivasha and Zamzam camps for displaced people.

 The joint force explained that the visits “aimed to monitor the military and logistical conditions of the stations on the ground, ensure their readiness, and raise morale”.