Sudan Armed Forces advance in Omdurman, politicians detained by RSF and army

Battles continued between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in old Omdurman yesterday. Last week, more than 50 people were killed and wounded in airstrikes on Soba El Mahatta in Khartoum. Both RSF and Military Intelligence detained members of the National Umma Party on Saturday.

The SAF continued its advance in Omdurman. Army troops moved from El Roumi in the north of El Sawrat towards old Omdurman. SAF supporters posted video clips on social media showing the soldiers, with people in the streets calling for their victory.

An army source told Radio Dabanga that the aim of the army operations in Omdurman is to reposition its troops and to expand its areas under control by linking its forces at the Engineers Corps south of old Omdurman with those of the Karari military area in the northern part of the city.

In Khartoum, RSF artillery continued attacking the SAF General Command in the city centre yesterday. The Sudanese Air Force bombed RSF sites in the neighbourhoods of Burri and El Manshiya, east of the centre, and the city’s ‘southern belt’.

Last week, 18 people were killed and 35 were wounded in aerial bombardments on Soba El Mahatta, north of El Kalaklat in southwest Khartoum. Mohamed Abdallah, spokesperson for the Khartoum Southern Belt Emergency Room, told Radio Dabanga that “nine men, five women, and four children died in the airstrikes, 35 people sustained injuries, and 15 houses were totally or partially destroyed”.

El Giteina

The Sudanese Air Force on Sunday bombed El Giteina in northeastern White Nile state, which came under control of the RSF in December.  

The airstrikes led to an unknown number of deaths and injuries, and a large number of people fled the town, towards El Duweim, Rabak, and Kosti.

A listener told Radio Dabanga from Rabak, the capital of White Nile state, that hundreds of people from El Giteina arrived in the “already overcrowded town”. He appealed to humanitarian and charity organisations to provide them with aid.

Detained

RSF paramilitaries held Abdeljalil El Basha, assistant to the president of the National Umma Party (NUP), in old Omdurman on Saturday, and took him to an unknown destination.

In a statement on its Facebook page yesterday, the party said that he has not been released so far.

On the same day, Military Intelligence officers detained El Tayeb Mohamed Ahmed, a member of the party’s executive office in White Nile state in Kosti, Imam of the Abu Ayoub El Ansari Mosque, and head of the party’s Professionals Secretariat. They took him to the MI headquarters in the state without giving any reasons.

The NUP condemned these “unjustified detentions” and holds the RSF and SAF responsible for their safety and the safety of all other detainees and demanded their immediate release.