Sudan: Clashes rage over strategic army base in Khartoum

Clashes yesterday intensified between the Sudanese army and the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group, over an army base in the capital, Khartoum.

On Saturday, the RSF launched a fierce attack from several fronts on the military base located in the Al-Shajara area in the south of the capital, with the aim of taking control of it.

A local resident said “significant losses occurred on both sides” as a result of the clashes, while another said the fighting continued non-stop, which is the longest period of fighting witnessed in the neighbourhood so far.

The two parties have been fighting over the strategic military base, with both claiming to have control over it.

Sudan has been locked in internal fighting since April between the army, led by Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

The war has so far killed about 5,000 people and displaced more than four million others, according to UN estimates.

On Tuesday evening, the United Nations High Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, called yet again on “the parties to stop the fighting to allow the passage of aid”, explaining that “aid routes are closed and food stocks are dwindling” in a country where more than half the population needs humanitarian aid.

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