Fierce fighting in south and west Sudan killed at least 65 people and wounded more than 130 Monday, medics said, as the devastating war between the army and paramilitary forces rages on.
In South Kordofan, artillery fire on the state capital Kadugli killed at least 40 people and wounded 70, according to two medical sources.
The city, controlled by the Sudanese army, was targeted in an attack that Governor Mohamed Ibrahim blamed on a faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, which also maintains a foothold in the state.
“Hilu’s attack on civilians in Kadugli aims to destabilise” the area, Ibrahim said in a statement to AFP, vowing to “clear the mountains around Kadugli” of rebel forces.
The governor said that the shelling targeted a local market.
SPLM-N has clashed with both the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in different parts of South Kordofan throughout their war.
Sudan has been mired in conflict since April 2023, with battles between the regular army and RSF escalating in recent weeks.
Air Strike in Nyala
In the vast western region of Darfur, a military air strike on South Darfur’s capital, Nyala, killed 25 people and wounded 63 on Monday, a medical source told AFP.
The attack hit “the Cinema District in Nyala,” an area under RSF control, the source told AFP on condition of anonymity over safety concerns.
In a statement on Monday, the RSF accused the army of using “barrel bombs” against civilians in several neighborhoods in Nyala.
The RSF holds sway over much of Darfur, including Nyala, which lies 195 kilometers (121 miles) from El-Fasher, the besieged capital of North Darfur, the only state in the region still under army control.
El-Fasher is home to some two million people who have been under RSF siege since May.
The city has seen some of the worst fighting of the war as the army battles to keep its last foothold in the region.
The UN’s migration agency said on Monday that more than 600,000 people have been displaced from North Darfur only between April 2024 and January 2025.
The International Organisation for Migration reported 95 incidents across North Darfur, more than half occurring in El-Fasher, during this period.
“These incidents displaced an estimated 605,257 individuals (121,179 households),” the IOM report said.
Civilians ‘Paying the Price’
Monday’s attacks in South Kordofan and Darfur also come amid intensified fighting between the army and the RSF in Khartoum, where the army has made advances against the paramilitaries.
Last week, the army broke a siege of its headquarters in the capital and the Signal Corps in Khartoum North, which had both been encircled by the RSF since the war began.
On Saturday, at least 60 people were killed and more than 150 injured when the RSF shelled a busy market in army-controlled Omdurman, part of greater Khartoum.
Across the Nile in the capital itself, an air strike on an RSF-controlled area left two civilians dead and dozens wounded, rescuers said.
Both warring sides have been repeatedly accused of targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.
The war has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted more than 12 million and devastated Sudan’s fragile infrastructure, forcing most health facilities out of service.
As the Sudanese army advances in the capital, the UN secretary-general’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric expressed alarm on Monday over reports of summary executions of civilians in Khartoum North, allegedly by fighters and militias allied with the army.
“Many of the victims of these incidents were allegedly originally from Darfur or the Kordofan regions of Sudan,” he said, calling on all parties to stop fighting and work towards a lasting peace.
Sudanese women, children, and men “are paying the price for the continued fighting by the belligerents,” Dujarric added.
