Historic Khartoum palace set ablaze by Sudan army airstrike
The old Republican Palace in Khartoum (Sovereignty Council)
The old Republican Palace in Khartoum was hit by a Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) airstrike yesterday, setting parts of it ablaze. An attack by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a market in North Kordofan yesterday left 15 people dead. Two children were killed when a SAF strike near the Babiker Nahar Pediatric Hospital in El Fasher caused the roof of the intensive care unit (ICU) to collapse on Saturday.
Sources from the RSF told Dabanga that the Republican Palace in Khartoum, a historic landmark built in 1832 under Ottoman Turkish rule, was “indiscriminately bombed by the army”. Video footage of RSF soldiers extinguishing flames in the palace courtyard circulated online yesterday.
The bombing followed intense battles between the SAF and the RSF near the Signal Corps in Khartoum Bahri (Khartoum North), the sources added.
The palace had previously sustained damage in airstrikes in May 2023 and again in August 2023. It fell under RSF control at the onset of the war in April 2023.
In southern Khartoum, six people were killed when their residence was struck by an artillery shell In El Salama El Gadima yesterday, according to Southern Belt Emergency Room spokesperson Mohamed Abdallah.
RSF attacks
In North Kordofan, at least 15 people were killed yesterday morning in an RSF attack on the Abu Haraz market in the western part of El Obeid, the state capital.
Witnesses told Dabanga that residents confronted the RSF during the attack, leading to casualties.
The RSF continues to deny involvement in attacks on civilians in North Kordofan villages, instead accusing military intelligence affiliated with the SAF of perpetrating the violence.
Also in North Kordofan, three people were killed in an RSF attack in Jebel El Dayer during Friday prayers. “The victims had stayed in the village to protect their homes after most residents were displaced to South Kordofan and White Nile state” a resident said.
In El Gezira, an RSF attack on El Harga Noureldin village, east of Wad Madani, left at 13 people dead and several more injured on Friday. Witnesses told Dabanga that the RSF entered the village with heavily armed combat vehicles and armed personnel and launched a violent attack against residents.
“The real death toll exceeds the reported numbers. There are bodies still lying in the streets and inside houses”, a resident said. He added that RSF members forcibly expelled residents from their homes and plundered their belongings.
In an interview with Dabanga, the head of the Civil Founding Council in El Gezira, Siddig Osman, blamed the attacks on “military intelligence, criminals that escaped from prisons, and weak-minded RSF soldiers”.
North Darfur
Fighting has subsided in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, following intense clashes between the SAF and the RSF since Friday morning.
Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders/MSF) reported that the Southern Hospital in El Fasher received 160 wounded since Friday, 25 of whom “were in a critical condition upon arrival and died”.
The organisation also denounced a SAF strike that landed 50 metres away from the Babiker Nahar Pediatrics Hospital in El Fasher on Saturday. The impact caused the ICU roof to collapse, killing three people, including two children, and ultimately forcing the hospital to close.
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