WAD MADANI
\nAt least 15 civilians in Khartoum were killed on Saturday \u201cwhen shells fell on their homes\u201d, a medical source said, as paramilitary fighters battling Sudan\u2019s army claimed gains in Darfur.
\nThe victims\u2019 bodies were taken to Al-Nau hospital in Omdurman, a district of greater Khartoum, the medical source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
\nFighting since April between the forces of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has raged in heavily populated areas.
\nThe struggle between the rival generals has crippled essential services in Sudan and razed entire neighbourhoods of the capital and the vast western region of Darfur.
\nRepresentatives of warring sides are in Jeddah for talks
\nIn nearly seven months of war, more than 10,400 people have been killed, according to a conservative estimate from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.
\nThe United Nations says the violence has forced more than six million people to flee, both within and outside Sudan.
\nRepresentatives of the warring sides are currently in the Saudi city of Jeddah for negotiations mediated by Saudi Arabia and the United States, but the fighting back home has raged unabated.<\/p>\n
Darfur offensive<\/p>\n
For weeks, the RSF has been advancing on army bases in Darfur, a region already scarred by decades of conflict and atrocities committed against civilians by armed groups including the RSF\u2019s predecessor, the Janjaweed militia.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, the paramilitary force announced it had \u201cliberated\u201d an army base in El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state where a communications blackout has raised fears of fresh horrors.<\/p>\n
According to Clementine Nkweta-Salami, the UN\u2019s most senior representative in the country, reports of \u201ccivilians being caught in the ongoing fighting\u201d in Darfur recall \u201cthe events in El Geneina\u201d in June, when rights groups and witnesses reported massacres, rampant sexual violence and mass graves.<\/p>\n
More than half a million people have fled the violence in Darfur to neighbouring Chad, which is just 30 kilometres (18 miles) from El Geneina.<\/p>\n
The events in West Darfur and other reports of ethnically motivated killings by the RSF and allied militias have triggered a new investigation by the International Criminal Court into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n
The army base in El Geneina is the third the RSF has claimed to have captured in a week, after Zalingei, the capital of Central Darfur, and Nyala, the South Darfur state capital and the second largest city in Sudan.<\/p>\n
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued an unusually strong statement on Monday, warning against signs of an \u201cimminent large-scale attack\u201d in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state.<\/p>\n
The attack \u201cwould subject civilians, including hundreds of thousands of displaced persons \u2014 many of whom only recently fled to El Fasher from other areas \u2014 to extreme danger,\u201d Blinken said.<\/p>\n
Darfur is a region the size of France, and home to a quarter of Sudan\u2019s 48 million people.<\/p>\n
\u2018Victory\u2019<\/p>\n
As Sudan\u2019s civilians face what UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths has called \u201cone of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history\u201d, both sides have positioned themselves as peacemakers in the resumed negotiations in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
US officials say the goals for now are limited to allowing in humanitarian assistance and pushing for a sustainable ceasefire.<\/p>\n
In previous negotiations, every agreed truce was almost immediately violated by both sides, and have both also been accused of obstructing, attacking or looting aid.<\/p>\n
The RSF on Monday published a video of its commander, Daglo, who has kept mostly out of sight throughout the conflict, in which he blamed Burhan for the war and congratulated his forces for their \u201cvictory\u201d in Darfur.<\/p>\n
Daglo said the RSF \u201chas no problem with peace\u201d, but it will not agree to \u201ca ceasefire that allows the army\u201d to regroup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WAD MADANI At least 15 civilians in Khartoum were killed on Saturday \u201cwhen shells fell on their homes\u201d, a medical source said, as paramilitary fighters battling Sudan\u2019s army claimed gains in Darfur. The victims\u2019 bodies were taken to Al-Nau hospital in Omdurman, a district of greater Khartoum, the medical source told AFP, speaking on condition […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366317,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-366308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n