Clashes between army, paramilitary forces escalate across Sudan

KHARTOUM, Sudan | Xinhua | The clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have recently escalated on multiple fronts across Sudan, notably in Sinnar, West Kordofan and North Darfur states.

The RSF announced on social media platform X that its forces seized an army headquarters and the bridge linking Sinnar and Gedaref states on Wednesday.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), “Over 55,400 people flee Singa,” the capital city of Sinnar State, due to the clashes.

OCHA said Singa’s residents have relocated to Gedaref, Blue Nile, White Nile, and Kassala states.

Meanwhile, the Humanitarian Aid Commission in Gedaref State predicted that “up to 130,000 people are expected to flee from Sinnar State in the coming days.”

Also on Wednesday, the Al-Sinnari Observatory, a local legal organization, warned in a statement of the repercussions of the escalation in the state. “The blackouts and water cuts have continued for five consecutive days after the RSF entered Singa,” said the observatory, adding communications networks were also interrupted.

Bloody clashes also raged in West Kordofan State in western Sudan, days after the RSF took control of the state’s capital city of Al-Fula.

On Wednesday, the SAF declared in a statement the repulsion of an RSF attack on Al Meiram city in West Kordofan.

In North Darfur State, the RSF launched at dawn an intensive artillery bombardment on the capital city of El Fasher, according to the non-governmental Coordination of Resistance Committees in El Fasher.

“The bombardment targeted the southern and western parts of the city, the livestock and vegetable markets, and the Al-Radeef neighborhood, inflicting casualties among civilians,” the resistance committees said in a statement

As a renewed effort toward a peaceful settlement to the conflict, a conference for Sudanese political forces is scheduled for July 7-8 in Cairo at the call of the Egyptian government. The conference aims to gather concerned regional and international partners to discuss solutions to the Sudan crisis.

On Wednesday, the Sudanese National Umma Party and the Sudanese Revolutionary Front confirmed participation in the conference.

Sudan has been embroiled in a deadly conflict between the SAF and the RSF since mid-April 2023, which has so far claimed at least 16,650 lives, OCHA said in an update last month.

The UN International Organization for Migration estimated in early June that at least 7.3 million people in Sudan are internally displaced amid the conflict. ■