Two killed in overnight air raids on South Darfur capital

Two people were killed, and others were injured in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, by barrel bombs on Wednesday night. This is the fourth time the Sudanese Air Force attacks Nyala since the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took control of the city in late October last year.

Several neighbourhoods were affected by the airstrikes, local sources told Radio Dabanga. “A MiG warplane dropped seven barrel bombs in multiple areas of Nyala around midnight, killing at least two and injuring four others.”

Mubarak Mousa, a resident of Teksas neighbourhood in southern Nyala, recounted seeing the warplane flying over the city: “The first two barrels fell near the Nyala Museum. The aircraft then headed northeast, dropping two barrels near the former SAF command and two more in the city centre.”

The RSF retaliated by firing anti-aircraft missiles at the warplane, causing it to catch fire, according to Mousa. However, he was unsure of the precise crash location.

The RSF, in a statement on X (formerly Twitter), condemned the bombing of Nyala. They described the attack as a “deliberate shelling of innocent civilians aimed at wreaking havoc, causing civilian casualties, and forcibly displacing local residents from their homes”.

Videos posted online by activists in Nyala depicted the destruction of homes and essential facilities, including two hospitals, a primary school, and the main Sudatel communications network station in the city.

El Sadig Salem, a community leader, decried that SAF aviation was “explicitly targeting civilians in Nyala, not the RSF”.

He attributed this to the army’s “inability to reclaim control of the city and its refusal to acknowledge defeat inflicted by the RSF”, lamenting the “unprofessionalism” of the Sudanese Air Force in bombing the city.

‘Targeting civilians’

Retd Brig Gen Abdelkarim El Gouni expressed astonishment at the repeated targeting of the South Darfur capital by warplanes, “despite the absence of SAF-RSF clashes”.

El Gouni questioned the army’s objectives for bombing Nyala, suggesting a social goal aimed at “displacing or retaliating against civilians supporting the RSF”, given that “principally, military aviation should support ground forces, and with no ongoing battles in Nyala, the airstrikes seemed to target civilian areas”.

“Despite the army garrison holding out for over six months against the RSF, military aircraft intervened only twice, and after a significant portion of the city’s population had left,” the retired military expert told Radio Dabanga yesterday.

However, he continued, “since the cessation of battles and the return of many residents, Nyala experienced four bombings since the end of October, at a rate of twice a month. So why did military intervention not occur earlier, and why target civilians now?”

Since war erupted between the SAF and RSF on April 15, Nyala has regularly witnessed fierce battles for the control of the strategically and economically important city in the region.

The SAF garrison of Nyala fell to the RSF in end October. The Sudanese Air Force bombed several places in the city in mid- December.

As per Radio Dabanga’s monitoring of the situation, aerial bombardment in Nyala has killed about 110 civilians in total, left dozens of injuries, and destroyed numerous homes and facilities. Several families have been compelled to flee the city again after returning.