Intensified fighting between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Saturday dislocated hundreds of families from their homes in the Bahri area north of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, witnesses told AFP.
Starting Wednesday, the RSF launched sustained attacks on the SAF’s Hattab base in Bahri.
The UN and other observers have said that tens of thousands have perished and millions have been displaced by the war which began on 15 April 2023 and has since prompted one of the world’s foulest humanitarian crises.
“Since this morning, the army has been firing artillery towards the south of Hattab while military planes are flying over” the area, one witness told AFP on Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Nasr el-Din, a resident who asked that only his first name be used for security reasons, said the RSF “attacked houses south (of the Hattab base), capturing citizens and killing others”.
“Since early morning, hundreds of families have left for the north, carrying their belongings on their heads”, he added in an account corroborated by another witness.
UN experts on Friday called for the deployment of an “independent and impartial force” to protect millions of civilians driven from their homes in Sudan.
After an independent fact-finding mission mandated by the Human Rights Council, the UN experts said “harrowing” violations by both sides had been uncovered, “which may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity”.
Meanwhile, more than 25 million people — upwards of half of Sudan’s population — face acute hunger, with full-blown famine declared in a camp for displaced people in the volatile western region of Darfur.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Saturday began a two-day visit to Port Sudan, the de facto seat of government after fighting forced the authorities out of Khartoum.