Violent clashes continue in Khartoum, 13 civilians dead

Khartoum, Sep 29 (IANS) Violent clashes have continued between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in capital Khartoum, killing 13 civilians, according to witnesses and local media.

"Today, violent clashes took place in the vicinity of the army's Engineers Corps in Omdurman, while large areas of the Umbada neighbourhood of the city came under violent artillery shelling," a witness from Omdurman, west of the Sudanese capital, told Xinhua news agency late Thursday.

He said the artillery and air bombardment focused on western parts of the Umbada neighborhood and the army-controlled Karari military base in northern Omdurman.

The Resistance Committee of Umbada neighborhood said in a statement on Thursday that "the neighbourhood experienced violent artillery bombardment, which left 13 civilians dead and 35 others wounded".

Also on Thursday, the independent Sudan Tribune news portal cited witnesses as saying that "they heard strong explosions caused by artillery shells fired by the RSF towards the army's positions in central Khartoum".

The RSF artillery strikes mainly targeted the army headquarters in central Khartoum, causing heavy smoke columns, the news portal said.

A witness from eastern Khartoum told Xinhua that the SAF warplanes bombarded the RSF posts in Imtidad Nasir neighbourhood east of the capital.

Meanwhile, the Sudanese Emergency Lawyers, an activist group initiative concerned with monitoring violations, said in a report on Wednesday that between April 16 and Sept. 19, 954 civilians have been killed and 2,434 others injured in both sides' bombardment in the Khartoum State, El-Obeid, the capital city of North Kordofan and Nyala, the capital city of South Darfur State.

"130 children and 94 women were among the dead, with Khartoum recording 647 deaths, El-Obeid 79 deaths, and Nyala 228 deaths," the report said.

Sudan has been witnessing deadly clashes between the SAF and the RSF in Khartoum and other areas since April 15, resulting in at least 3,000 deaths and more than 6,000 injuries, according to figures released by the Sudanese Health Ministry.

According to the latest report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), some 5.3 million people have been displaced inside and outside Sudan.

Over one million people have crossed into neighboring countries, including the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan, OCHA said.