Heavy fighting rages on in Sudan’s capital, south

Wad Madani, Sudan (AFP):

Air strikes, street battles and artillery fire shook Sudan’s capital Khartoum and the major southern city of El-Obeid on Thursday, witnesses told the media.

“Artillery fire targeted paramilitary bases of the Rapid Support Forces,” said a resident of El-Obeid, 350 kilometres southwest of Khartoum.

Fighting between the RSF and the regular army, led by feuding generals, has killed at least 3,000 people and displaced more than 3.3 million since April 15.

Army jets have been striking paramilitaries, who respond with anti-aircraft fire, said another El-Obeid resident, who asked not to be named for security reasons.

In Khartoum’s south, witnesses have reported three air raids in a single day.

“The blasts were terrifying,” one of them recounted.

Earlier on Wednesday, the army accused the RSF of targeting a residential area of the capital in a drone strike that left “14 civilians dead and 15 injured”.

Residents say that at least 13 civilians have been killed.

The conflict pits army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The International Criminal Court has opened a new probe into alleged war crimes in Darfur, its chief prosecutor Karim Khan said last week.

He warned against “allowing history to repeat itself” in Darfur, where 300,000 people were killed in a conflict in 2003.