The fighting has focused on Omdurman for the past day.
CAIRO:
An airstrike by the Sudanese army on western Omdurman has killed at least 22 people and injured dozens, Khartoum’s health ministry said Saturday, as the war between the country’s military factions entered its 12th week.
As the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) quickly dominated the capital Khartoum and its sister cities Omdurman and Bahri after the outbreak of fighting on April 15, the army has launched air and artillery strikes.
The fighting, for which no mediation efforts have so far succeeded, threatens to drag the country into a wider civil war involving other internal and external actors in the East African country between the Horn of Africa, the Sahel and the Red Sea.
Tensions had increased between the two sides in the months leading up to the war over the chain of command and the integration of their armed forces in the context of a new transition to democracy.
At least 1,133 people have been killed in fighting in the capital and in the regions of Kordofan and Darfur, according to the Federal Ministry of Health, which has led to communal violence in West Darfur state.
More than 2.9 million people have been uprooted, nearly 700,000 of whom have fled to neighboring countries. More than half of the capital
It has also led to “alarming numbers” of rapes and kidnappings of women and girls, according to aid agencies.
In recent days, fighting has centered on Omdurman, as the western part of the city is an important supply route for the RSF to bring in reinforcements from Darfur, its power base.
Strikes, including overnight on Friday, have also centered on the country’s state broadcasting complex in eastern Omdurman. Other nighttime strikes hit the south and east of Khartoum.
The military said in a Facebook post that special forces had killed 20 “rebel soldiers” and destroyed their weapons.