Sudan army offensive in El Gezira, clashes in North Darfur

Fierce fighting took place between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) west of Wad Madani, capital of El Gezira, on Friday. Four people were killed in airstrikes on Naeema in White Nile state. On Thursday, El Fasher, North Darfur, witnessed SAF-RSF clashes. RSF sites in Um Rawaba, North Kordofan, were reportedly attacked by drones last month.

Sudan War Monitor (SWM) reported yesterday about “very violent clashes” between the Sudanese army and the RSF militia on Friday, “while field sources report widespread violations committed by the RSF against citizens in many villages in the region”.

SWM quoted multiple sources from El Gezira who reported that the army tried to advance towards Wad Madani from El Managil, leading to clashes with RSF paramilitaries in the area of Medinat Arab. The violence forced the army to withdraw westward to Akoud near El Managil.

Since Wad Madani fell to the RSF in December last year, after only four days of resistance from the Sudanese army, life in the state, south of Khartoum, has reportedly “turned into a hell” as the paramilitaries are wreaking havoc in rural El Gezira.

Barrel bombs

Three people were killed by barrel bombs dropped by the Sudanese Air Force on Naeema in Giteina, in the northern part of White Nile state, on Friday evening. Yesterday, a person died, and several others were injured in another airstrike on the town. 

The bombardments also led to the destruction of several homes and shops, the National Umma Party (NUP) said in a statement on Saturday. People in Giteina said that there are no RSF soldiers present in the area.

The NUP denounced the repeated bombings targeting residential areas, and referred to similar “unjustified random raids on several other towns and cities in the country, such as Nyala, El Fasher, El Daein, Jabrat El Sheikh, Wad Madani, and other places recently”.

Injured

On Thursday, the North Darfur capital El Fasher witnessed SAF-RSF battles in the northern part of the city, near the Abu Shouk and Naivasha camps for displaced people. Reportedly, several people were injured.

Ahmed Hussein, rapporteur of the Joint Darfur Force made up of combatants of rebel movements in the region, told Radio Dabanga that the fighting lasted two hours.

A resident of El Fasher said that the clashes began at dawn on Thursday and lasted for hours. An unidentified person and two children were injured in Abu Shouk. The El Fasher Resistance Committees El Fasher reported an unidentified number of casualties. The Emergency Initiative in the Abu Shouk camp appealed to the North Darfur Ministry of Health to send an ambulance to the health centres in camp so that “so that the emergency cases can safely be transported to a hospital”.

The RSF and the SAF are still fighting for the control of North Darfur. The RSF took control of the capitals of the other four Darfur states, Nyala and Zalingei in late October last year, and El Geneina and Ed Daein a month later. Battles had already occurred in El Fasher, but the governor of the state, a former rebel leader, managed, together with native administration leaders, civil society activists, police officers, and women and youth groups to make the warring parties agree on a ceasefire and extend it more than once.

The Darfur Network for Human Rights (DNHR) reported on February 22 that the majority of the residents of the El Fasher and surrounding camps for the displaced “face the harsh reality of inadequate access to food, leading to severe malnutrition”.

Drones

Southern North Kordofan’s Um Rawaba, neighbouring White Nile state, nine people were killed, dozens of others were injured, and two young women were raped last month.

“The entire area has been plundered,” residents told Radio Dabanga on Friday. They also reported that various RSF sites in the area were attacked by drones in February.

“On February 4, RSF thugs intercepted a travel bus near Wad Ashana. They took two young women off the bus, took them out of sight, and raped them alternately before returning them to the bus,” one of the sources said.

They reported that five people died in RSF attacks in Um Rawaba town last month. Three farmers were killed by herders in the locality.

In early October last year, heavy SAF-RSF clashes broke out in the area of Um Rawaba, clearing the path “for an advance towards Kosti in White Nile state,” the RSF stated at the time.