Continued fighting, rapes, and robberies reported from Sudan

Battles between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continued in large parts of Khartoum state on Sunday. In the South Darfur capital Nyala, fierce fighting resumed over the weekend. In El Fasher, North Darfur, a woman was gang-raped, and houses were plundered. The road between En Nehoud and Kosti is reportedly the ‘most dangerous one’ in the country.

In Khartoum, artillery shelling continued near the remains of the General Command of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Republican Palace in the city centre, and in Jabra and El Sahafa neighbourhoods in the weekend.

Sources reported heavy smoke rising from central Khartoum. Others told Radio Dabanga that the Sudanese air force continued to target RSF sites in the city on Saturday and Sunday.

The SAF Special Task Forces said in a statement yesterday evening that they carried out a “qualitative operation” against the RSF in Omdurman earlier that day.

The SAF continued to shell targets in Khartoum North (Khartoum Bahri), in particular Halfaya, from the Wadi Sedna base in northern Omdurman.

For its part, the RSF said on social media that they shot down on Sunday in Khartoum, an army MiG warplane.

Communication providers El Sudani and MTN yesterday returned to large parts of Omdurman after a week-long hiatus.

Besieged

Listeners in Nyala reported that several people were killed, and others wounded yesterday morning, when the army succeeded to repel a large attack by the RSF.

They told Radio Dabanga that the RSF besieged the city from three directions fighting broke out again on Saturday afternoon. “One civilian was killed, and several others were injured,” one of them said.

Abdelrazeg Hasan, sheikh of the Otash camp for the displaced adjacent to Nyala, reported to Radio Dabanga that Janna Ahmed Mohamed was killed, and two others were wounded by stray bullets in the camp on Friday evening, during a exchange of fire by the warring parties.

“The Otash camp residents suffer from dire humanitarian conditions, as we do not receive aid anymore and farmers are not able to cultivate their lands because of the widespread insecurity,” he said. “The organisation that was helping us had to close its doors after their warehouses were plundered. Most of the people are hungry.”

Sheikh Hasan further stated that 29 people have been killed and 47 others wounded by stray bullets in in Otash camp in Nyala by stray bullets since the war between the army and the RSF broke out in April.

Raped, robbed

On Saturday afternoon, a group of four gunmen gang-raped a 21-year-old displaced woman near Zamzam camp south of El Fasher, capital of North Darfur. The victim, who was also stabbed, is currently being treated in the El Fasher Southern Hospital, a relative told Radio Dabanga.

In the evening, El Fasher witnessed raids of at least 20 houses in the Shakreen neighbourhood. Maysar Adam reported the following day that the houses were stripped of their contents. The stolen goods were loaded on carts and transported out of the city.

“When I wanted to visit my home on Sunday morning, after having fled with my family to the south of the city, the RSF soldiers that now occupied my home refused to let me in.”

‘The worst road’

Two former Darfur governors were robbed more than once on the road between El Obeid and Kosti on Saturday.

Former Central Darfur governor Adeeb Abdelrahman told Radio Dabanga that the bus carrying him and former South Darfur governor Hamid El Tijani was repeatedly intercepted by groups of armed locals. “We and the other passengers were subjected to random searches and forced to pay so-called passage fees.”

The road between El Nehoud in West Kordofan and Kosti in White Nile state that passes El Obeid “is the worst one compared to the roads in Darfur,” he said. “The number of random checkpoints and hotbeds of armed robberies on this road is very large.”

Abdelrahman said that most of the people fleeing Darfur to the east “are robbed of their money, which was all left to them as they had to sell their belongings in the place from which they left, to cover the travel costs”.

Lorries carrying goods and aid items to Darfur are delayed for long periods due to delays in the arrival of military vehicles to secure the convoys and the ongoing deterioration of the security situation on the roads of Kordofan.

“This exacerbates the humanitarian situation in Darfur,” he stated. “It is better to transport aid to Darfur via Chad to avoid being stolen in Kordofan.”