Air Strikes Hit Khartoum’s Outskirts as Sudan’s War Enters Sixth Week

This picture shows a deserted street in southern Khartoum on May 19, 2023, as battles continue between the army and paramilitary forces led by rival generals. (AFP)
This picture shows a deserted street in southern Khartoum on May 19, 2023, as battles continue between the army and paramilitary forces led by rival generals. (AFP)
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Air Strikes Hit Khartoum’s Outskirts as Sudan’s War Enters Sixth Week

This picture shows a deserted street in southern Khartoum on May 19, 2023, as battles continue between the army and paramilitary forces led by rival generals. (AFP)
This picture shows a deserted street in southern Khartoum on May 19, 2023, as battles continue between the army and paramilitary forces led by rival generals. (AFP)

Air strikes hit outer areas of the Sudanese capital Khartoum overnight and on Saturday morning, as fighting that has trapped civilians in a humanitarian crisis and displaced more than a million entered its sixth week.

The fighting between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has led to a collapse in law and order with looting that both sides blame the other for. Stocks of food, cash, and essentials are rapidly dwindling.

Air strikes were reported by eyewitnesses in southern Omdurman and northern Bahri, the two cities that lie across the Nile from Khartoum, forming Sudan's "triple capital." Some of the strikes took place near the state broadcaster in Omdurman, the eyewitnesses said.

Eyewitnesses in Khartoum said that the situation was relatively calm, although sporadic gunshots could be heard.

The conflict, which began on April 15, has displaced almost 1.1 million people internally and into neighboring countries. Some 705 people have been killed and at least 5,287 injured, according to the World Health Organization.

"We faced heavy artillery fire early this morning, the whole house was shaking," Sanaa Hassan, a 33-year-old living in the al-Salha neighborhood of Omdurman, told Reuters by phone.

"It was terrifying, everyone was lying under their beds. What's happening is a nightmare," she said.

The RSF is embedded in residential districts, drawing almost continual air strikes by the regular armed forces.

In recent days ground fighting has flared once again in the Darfur region, in the cities of Nyala and Zalenjei.

Both sides blamed each other in statements late on Friday for sparking the fighting in Nyala, one of the country's largest cities, which had for weeks been relatively calm due to a locally-brokered truce.

A local activist told Reuters there were sporadic gun clashes near the city's main market close to army headquarters on Saturday morning. Almost 30 people have died in the two previous days of fighting, according to activists.

The war broke out in Khartoum after disputes over plans for the RSF to be integrated into the army and over the future chain of command under an internationally backed deal to shift Sudan towards democracy following decades of conflict-ridden autocracy.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) announced late on Friday more than $100 million to Sudan and countries receiving fleeing Sudanese, including much-needed food and medical aid.

"It's hard to convey the extent of the suffering occurring right now in Sudan," said agency head Samantha Power.



Austin Tice's Mother in Damascus, Hopes to Find Son

Debra Tice, mother of journalist Austin Tice who disappeared while reporting in Syria in 2012, speaks after an interview with Reuters in Damascus, Syria January 18, 2025. REUTERS/Yamam Al Shaar 
Debra Tice, mother of journalist Austin Tice who disappeared while reporting in Syria in 2012, speaks after an interview with Reuters in Damascus, Syria January 18, 2025. REUTERS/Yamam Al Shaar 
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Austin Tice's Mother in Damascus, Hopes to Find Son

Debra Tice, mother of journalist Austin Tice who disappeared while reporting in Syria in 2012, speaks after an interview with Reuters in Damascus, Syria January 18, 2025. REUTERS/Yamam Al Shaar 
Debra Tice, mother of journalist Austin Tice who disappeared while reporting in Syria in 2012, speaks after an interview with Reuters in Damascus, Syria January 18, 2025. REUTERS/Yamam Al Shaar 

The mother of American journalist Austin Tice, who was taken captive during a reporting trip to Syria in August 2012, arrived in Damascus on Saturday to step up the search for her son and said she hopes she can take him home with her, according to Reuters.

Tice, who worked as a freelance reporter for the Washington Post and McClatchy, was one of the first US journalists to make it into Syria after the outbreak of the civil war.

His mother, Debra Tice, drove into the Syrian capital from Lebanon with Nizar Zakka, the head of Hostage Aid Worldwide, an organization which is searching for Austin and believes he is still in Syria.

“It'd be lovely to put my arms around Austin while I'm here. It'd be the best,” Debra Tice told Reuters in the Syrian capital, which she last visited in 2015 to meet with Syrian authorities about her son, before they stopped granting her visas.

The overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's regime in December by the Syrian opposition has allowed her to visit again from her home in Texas.

“I feel very strongly that Austin's here, and I think he knows I'm here... I'm here,” she said.

Debra Tice and Zakka are hoping to meet with Syria's new authorities, including the head of its new administration Ahmed al-Sharaa, to push for information about Austin.

They are also optimistic that US President-elect Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated on Monday, will take up the cause.

Her son, now 43, was taken captive in August 2012, while travelling through the Damascus suburb of Daraya.

Reuters was first to report in December that in 2013 Tice, a former US Marine, managed to slip out of his cell and was seen moving between houses in the streets of Damascus' upscale Mazzeh neighborhood.

He was recaptured soon after his escape, likely by forces who answered directly to Assad, current and former US officials said.

Debra Tice came to Syria in 2012 and 2015 to meet with Syrian authorities, who never confirmed that Tice was in their custody, both she and Zakka said.

She criticized outgoing US President Joe Biden's administration, saying they did not negotiate hard enough for her son's release, even in recent months.

“We certainly felt like President Biden was very well positioned to do everything possible to bring Austin home, right? I mean, this was the end of his career,” she said. “This would be a wonderful thing for him to do. So we had an expectation. He pardoned his own son, right? So, where's my son?”

Debra Tice said her “mind was just spinning” as she drove across the Lebanese border into Syria and teared up as she spoke about the tens of thousands whose loved ones were held in Assad's notorious prison system and whose fate remains unknown.

“I have a lot in common with a lot of Syrian mothers and families, and just thinking about how this is affecting them - do they have the same hope that I do, that they're going to open a door, that they're going to see their loved one?”