Three more killed in airstrikes on North Darfur capital, RSF attacks rebel convoy

Three people were killed in new attacks by the Sudanese Air Force on neighbourhoods in El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, on Friday. Rapid Support Forces attacked a convoy of the Sudan Liberation Movement under the leadership of Abdelwahid Nur (SLM-AW) near the city that day.

Speaking to Radio Dabanga, El Fasher resident Ismail Khareef said that the airstrikes on the northern and eastern parts of the city, controlled by the RSF, led to the destruction of various homes on Friday evening.

“Um Kalsoum Ibrahim (55), Mihrab Yahya (20) and Hajra Yahya (10) were fatally hit. Eleven others, most of them from the same family were wounded.”

On Monday, nine people were killed, and 14 others were injured, including children, in an air raid on El Fasher, the second one on the city within 24 hours.

The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) earlier this month asked civilians to stay away from RSF sites in El Fasher, as they are considered “a legitimate target for aerial bombardments”.

The acting Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Port Sudan on Friday accused the RSF of seizing humanitarian aid trucks on their way to El Fasher.

The ministry said that the RSF has deployed its forces near Mellit to block the road to aid convoys and seize them, to prevent the arrival of humanitarian relief items transported via the northern Sudanese route Ed Debba-Mellit-El Fasher.

Convoy attacked

The SLM-AW has accused the RSF of killing, wounding, and abducting a number of its forces at the Halouf Gate to El Fasher on Friday.  

The movement’s military spokesperson, Waleed Abakar, said in a press statement yesterday that an RSF force “opened fire without a warning” on an administrative convoy of the SLM near the North Darfur capital on Friday. The convoy came from Dar Meidob, travelling via Mellit.

Several SLM-AW members were killed and injured. Abakar demanded the immediate release of the captured combatants and return of the stolen property, warning of the “consequences of this aggression”.

He added that the movement has declared its neutrality in the ongoing war between the SAF and the RSF “so that the country will not slide into a comprehensive civil war”.

In December last year, the RSF clashed with combatants of the SLM-AW in western Jebel Marra.

In the same month, RSF attacks on rebel combatants of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North headed by Abdelaziz El Hilu in the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan, were reported.