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Sudan SAF, RSF Fighting Kills At least 33 Civilians Overnight


FILE — Combination of pictures created on April 18, 2023 showing Sudan's army chief, Lieutenant-General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (L), and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo (R), who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
FILE — Combination of pictures created on April 18, 2023 showing Sudan's army chief, Lieutenant-General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (L), and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo (R), who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Al-Jazira State, Sudan — Overnight fighting in Sudan’s capital Khartoum between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces left at least 33 civilians dead, pro-democracy lawyers said on Friday.

Sudan has been gripped by nearly nine months of conflict pitting army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against his former deputy, paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

Fighting between the rival forces has claimed at least 12,190 lives according to an estimate by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project.

The United Nations says more than seven million people have been displaced.

On Thursday, 23 civilians were killed and several more wounded by aerial bombing in south Khartoum's Soba district, the Emergency Lawyers group said, blaming the army because it maintains control of the skies.

The lawyers’ group confirmed 10 other deaths in artillery strikes, also in southern Khartoum.

A local group known as a resistance committee also said "10 civilians were killed by artillery fire in residential areas and the local market".

The focus of the conflict, which erupted in mid-April in the capital, has shifted south and recently reached Sudan’s Al-Jazira state where hundreds of thousands of people had sought refuge.

The streets of Khartoum, where fighting continues, are controlled by Dagalo’s Rapid Support Forces, or RSF. Burhan's administration still puts out statements as the Sudanese government.

The RSF also holds nearly all of the western Darfur region, and in December pressed deeper into Al-Jazira state, shattering one of the nation’s few remaining sanctuaries.

The resistance committees, which have provided help to civilians during conflict, had organized pro-democracy protests before a 2021 coup by Burhan and Dagalo derailed the nation’s democratic transition.

Burhan and Dagalo then fell out, leading to fighting between the rival forces.

Dagalo has toured several African capitals since late December in his first foreign trip since the start of the conflict.

In Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, the RSF commander signed a declaration with the former Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok in what analysts say was a bid to position himself as a key interlocutor.

The rival forces have both been accused of war crimes during the fighting. International mediation efforts by the United States, Saudi Arabia and more recently the east African bloc IGAD have failed.

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