Sudan Violence Rages as Paramilitaries Deny Darfur War Crimes

By Staff, Agencies

Air strikes pummeled Khartoum on Sunday and fighting raged in Sudan's western Darfur region, witnesses said, as a three-month war between the army and rival paramilitaries showed no signs of abating.

In the capital's east and northwest, army fighter jets "targeted bases" belonging to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces [RSF] who "responded with anti-aircraft weapons", witnesses told AFP.

A local neighborhood group said at least five people were killed and 17 others injured in a blast in Ombada, in Khartoum's northwest, but the toll was likely to increase as "more casualties are pulled from the rubble".

RSF drones targeted Khartoum's largest military hospital, according to witnesses. A similar attack Saturday on the same facility left five dead and 22 injured, the army said.

The war between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has killed around 3,000 people, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project, but the actual death toll is believed to be much higher.

A further three million people have been displaced internally or fled across borders, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Diplomatic efforts to end the violence continue but have failed to bear fruit, and numerous ceasefires have been broken.

Residents of Kas, about 80 kilometers [50 miles] northwest of the South Darfur state capital of Nyala, said houses were broken into and looted by RSF fighters.

The paramilitaries in a statement hailed their "major victory" in the town.

They also said on Sunday they "welcome" the decision of a police force in East Darfur to "integrate with the RSF", after heads of local tribes in South Darfur also pledged allegiance to the paramilitaries.

A statement by the interior ministry said the police remains "the armed forces' strongest supporter" in Khartoum, and also praised its "efforts" in the rest of the country.

Darfur, home to around a quarter of Sudan's 48 million people, has seen entire towns razed to the ground, with reports of mass civilian deaths and ethnically charged assassinations blamed on the RSF and allied Arab militias.