25 Civilians Killed in 48 Hours in Sudan: Activists, Medic

WAD MADANI, SUDAN: Five civilians were killed by bombs that “fell on their homes” in Khartoum, a Sudanese medical source told AFP, a day after an airstrike in the city’s south killed at least 20 civilians.

Residents of the war-torn capital reported the city was again pummeled by artillery and rocket fire Sunday, in the fifth month of war between the army and paramilitary fighters.

“The death toll from the aerial bombardment” in southern Khartoum late Saturday “has risen to 20 civilian fatalities,” according to a statement from the neighborhood’s resistance committee. They are among many volunteer groups that used to organize pro-democracy demonstrations and now aid families caught in the line of fire.

In an earlier statement, they said the victims included two children, and warned that more fatalities went unrecorded, as “their bodies could not be moved to the hospital because they were severely burned or torn to pieces in the bombing.”

Since war began between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on April 15, around 5,000 people have been killed, according to conservative estimates from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project.

The Sudanese Armed Forces control the skies and have carried out regular airstrikes while RSF fighters dominate the streets of the capital.

Western countries have accused the paramilitaries and allied militias of killings based on ethnicity in the western Darfur region, and the International Criminal Court has opened a new probe into alleged war crimes.

The army has also been accused of abuses, including a July 8 airstrike that killed around two dozen civilians.

• By VOA