The ongoing conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has escalated, with intensified clashes reported across various regions of the country on Thursday.
As the Geneva talks on Sudan entered their second day, heavy artillery shelling resumed in Khartoum on Thursday morning. Eyewitnesses reported hearing explosions in several areas, including North Khartoum, Central Khartoum, and South Khartoum, due to the intense artillery bombardment.
Thick plumes of smoke were seen rising from the Arkawit, Al-Sahafa, and Al-Emtedad areas in the Sudanese capital. This shelling is part of the extensive military operations that took place on Wednesday night, during which the Sudanese army targeted numerous RSF positions in East and South Khartoum and North Khartoum.
In Omdurman, located west of the capital, local residents reported renewed RSF shelling on residential areas on Thursday, resulting in civilian casualties. A family was reportedly killed in Al-Thawra neighborhood – Block 75 – when an RSF-launched shell struck their home, instantly killing a woman and her two brothers.
Additionally, on Thursday, the RSF announced that several civilians, including women and children, were killed in airstrikes conducted by Sudanese army jets on the Central Market area in Khartoum.
In a statement on the social media platform X, the RSF condemned the airstrikes, claiming they were part of a broader disregard for international and regional efforts to alleviate the suffering of the Sudanese people. The statement decried these “inhumane actions” against innocent civilians.
The RSF called on the international community, human rights organizations, and humanitarian actors to condemn what they described as the brutal behavior of military leaders, who have targeted residential neighborhoods with bombardment since the onset of the conflict.
The statement also highlighted that the practice of bombing civilians has been ongoing since the 1990s, from the South Sudan war through the conflicts in Darfur, Blue Nile, and South Kordofan regions, leading to the deaths of thousands of innocent people and the displacement of large numbers of residents in Darfur and other parts of the country.
Military sources reported that the army’s warplanes carried out intense airstrikes on RSF gatherings in the villages of “Bika, Mahla, and Talha” in the Al-Jazira state, where the RSF was allegedly planning attacks on the army’s advanced defenses in the western part of the city.
The air force also targeted RSF positions in Jebel Moya in Sennar state, as well as the villages of “Al-Hashaba Haj Ali” in White Nile state and “Um Basal” west of Al-Jazira state.
In the western city of El Fasher, the capital of the Darfur region, eyewitnesses reported that warplanes conducted airstrikes on RSF positions in the eastern parts of the city.
