The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) has launched a major offensive in the country's capital, Khartoum, to regain territory previously lost to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) when civil war broke out more than a year ago, according to multiple media reports.
Air raids on RSF positions were carried out in the capital and adjoining areas on Thursday at dawn, Al Jazeera reported, citing military sources. It is the largest such assault in months.
Witnesses told Reuters about heavy bombardments and clashes as government troops pushed toward bridges crossing the Nile and linking Khartoum to neighboring cities Omdurman and Bahri. Army sources stated that their forces had already crossed the bridges in Khartoum and Bahri, but the RSF claimed it had repelled the attempts, the outlet added.
“The army is carrying out heavy artillery strikes and airstrikes on Halfaya and Shambat [in Bahri],” Ahmed Abdalla, a 48-year-old resident, told Reuters.
“We’re sitting with neighbors, anticipating the next event,” another resident in Khartoum told Al Jazeera, adding that there was hope that the army would reclaim the city because “people are fed up with the militia.”
Khartoum State Health Ministry spokesman Mohamed Ibrahim reportedly said at least four people were killed and 14 others injured in shelling by the RSF on residential neighborhoods in the Karari Governorate, north of Omdurman, on Thursday morning.
Sudan descended into chaos in mid-April last year when fighting broke out in the capital between the military and the RSF, following months of tension over control of the country. Since then, tens of thousands of civilians have been killed and wounded, nearly eight million people displaced, and two million more forced to flee to neighboring countries, according to a UN fact-finding mission’s recent report. The war-torn country faces what the UN has labeled one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Thursday’s large-scale military operation comes despite US and Saudi-led efforts to broker a ceasefire, which was also discussed on the sidelines of the 79th UN General Assembly session in New York.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who is participating in the UN meeting, held bilateral talks with Sudan’s de facto leader and SAF commander, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, on ways to end the 17-month war.
During the meeting, Lavrov emphasized “the need for an early cessation of hostilities” and the start of a broad national dialogue, according to a Russian foreign ministry press release.
Meanwhile, in an address to the Assembly on Thursday, al-Burhan said that while he supports peace efforts, a ceasefire can only be achieved if the RSF withdraws from the areas it occupies.
He accused unnamed countries of supplying the RSF with mercenaries, funds, and weapons, warning that the army is “proceeding to defeat and dislodge these aggressors, no matter how much assistance and support they find.”