A local lawyers’ union in Sudan’s war-torn western Darfur region reported that at least 16 civilians were killed by rocket fire that struck their houses.
The union stated that “during an exchange of rocket fire between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), 16 civilians were killed on Friday, according to a preliminary toll, in Nyala,” the South Darfur state capital.
Recent fighting in Darfur, which is an RSF stronghold, has focused on Nyala, following intense clashes in El Geneina.
Residents reported on Saturday that battles have also continued in and around Khartoum, with the army air strikes targeting villages in the north of Al-Jazirah state, just south of the capital.
The fertile land between the White Nile and Blue Nile rivers now shelters several hundred thousand of the estimated 3.3 million people displaced by the war.
“The RSF has held the upper hand in Khartoum since the early days of the war, but that advantage is only growing more apparent,” the International Crisis Group (ICG) think-tank said.
According to the International Crisis Group (ICG), the army’s major offensive in North Khartoum on July 15, which involved air raids that destroyed entire suburban neighborhoods, “failed spectacularly.”
The RSF is making efforts to seize the main Darfur-Khartoum road to secure a continuous supply of fighters and weapons, according to reports.
The ongoing war, which began in Khartoum on April 15 and subsequently spread to Darfur, has resulted in a death toll of at least 3,000 people across Sudan, based on a conservative estimate.
The conflict pits army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who is the commander of RSF.
Both Burhan and Dagalo have representatives in Saudi Arabia, where talks for a potential truce have been underway.