22 killed in airstrikes in Sudan

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Khartoum

At least 22 people have been killed in an airstrike on a Sudanese town,  It is one of the bloodiest attacks in the weeks-long conflict between the Sudanese army and a rebel paramilitary organization.

The attack took place on Saturday in a residential area of Omdurman, a city next to the capital Khartoum, according to a health ministry statement. An unknown number of people were injured in the attack. The army had no spokesperson immediately available for comment. According to two residents of Omdurman, it was difficult to identify the perpetrators of the attack.

He claimed that RSF personnel in the area have been regularly attacked by army aircraft and that the paramilitary group has retaliated using drones and anti-aircraft weapons.

According to a local named Abdel-Rahman, who gave only his first name, the army was targeting the RSF at the time of the raid early Saturday, and the RSF used civilian houses as shields while firing anti-aircraft shells at the attacking jets. used as Al Jazeera reports.

The western part of Omdurman is a vital supply route for the RSF to bring reinforcements from its power base in Darfur, which has led to fighting being concentrated there in recent days. The country’s state broadcasting facility in eastern Omdurman has also been the target of similar attacks. South and east of Khartoum were also the targets of other attacks throughout the night. At least 1,133 people have lost their lives in the violence that began on April 15, according to the health ministry.

Over 2.9 million people have been displaced, of whom around 700,000 have fled to nearby countries. The East African nation, which is located between the Horn of Africa, the Sahel and the Red Sea, is at risk of developing into a major civil war as a result of the conflict, which would involve both domestic and foreign sides, according to Al. Jazeera. The conflict began after several months of rising tensions between the army and the RSF.

According to relief organizations, there have also been “alarming numbers” of rapes and abductions of women and girls as a result of the violence. Several cease-fire agreements between the warring sides mediated by Saudi and American mediators have failed to end the country’s violence.

Since the military overthrew Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok’s transitional administration and imposed a state of emergency in September 2021 – a move that political opponents dubbed a “coup” – Sudan has been without a functioning government. As Al Jazeera reported, the elections were supposed to mark the conclusion of the transitional era, which began after the ouster of former President Omar al-Bashir in August 2019.