Health Ministry: 22 Killed in Airstrike on Sudan's Omdurman

Displaced people who fled the ongoing violence, gather in a room inside the university of al-Jazira, transformed into a makeshift shelter, in al-Hasaheisa south of Khartoum on July 8,2023. (Photo by AFP)
Displaced people who fled the ongoing violence, gather in a room inside the university of al-Jazira, transformed into a makeshift shelter, in al-Hasaheisa south of Khartoum on July 8,2023. (Photo by AFP)
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Health Ministry: 22 Killed in Airstrike on Sudan's Omdurman

Displaced people who fled the ongoing violence, gather in a room inside the university of al-Jazira, transformed into a makeshift shelter, in al-Hasaheisa south of Khartoum on July 8,2023. (Photo by AFP)
Displaced people who fled the ongoing violence, gather in a room inside the university of al-Jazira, transformed into a makeshift shelter, in al-Hasaheisa south of Khartoum on July 8,2023. (Photo by AFP)

At least 22 people were killed and scores injured in an airstrike by Sudan's army on western Omdurman, the Khartoum state health ministry said on Saturday.
While the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) quickly dominated the capital Khartoum and its sister cities Omdurman and Bahri after fighting broke out on April 15, the army has launched air and artillery strikes.
At least 1,133 people have been killed in the fighting, according to the federal health ministry, which has flared in the capital and the Kordofan and Darfur regions, sparking ethnic violence in West Darfur state.
More than 2.9 million people have been uprooted, including nearly 700,000 who have fled into neighboring countries.
Fighting has focused on Omdurman in recent days, as the western part of the city is a key supply route for the RSF to bring reinforcements in from Darfur, its power base.
Strikes, including overnight on Friday, have also centered on the country's state broadcasting complex in eastern Omdurman. Other overnight strikes hit southern and eastern Khartoum.
The army said in a post on Facebook that special forces had killed 20 "rebel soldiers" and destroyed their weaponry.



IOM: Over 55,000 Displaced Sudanese Return to Southeastern State

File photo of Sudanese refugees (AFP)
File photo of Sudanese refugees (AFP)
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IOM: Over 55,000 Displaced Sudanese Return to Southeastern State

File photo of Sudanese refugees (AFP)
File photo of Sudanese refugees (AFP)

Over 55,000 internally displaced Sudanese have returned to areas across the southeastern state of Sennar, more than a month after the army recaptured the state capital, the UN migration agency said Saturday.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said its field teams "monitored the return of an estimated 55,466 displaced persons to locations across Sennar state" between December 18 and January 10.

Across the entire country, however, the United Nations says 21 months of war have created the world's worst internal displacement crisis, uprooting more than 12 million people, AFP reported.

Famine has been declared in parts of the country, but the risk is spreading for millions more people, including to areas north of Sennar, a UN-backed assessment said last month.

In November, the Sudanese army, battling the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2023, said it had regained control of Sinja, the Sennar state capital and a key link between army-controlled areas of central and eastern Sudan.

The RSF had controlled Sinja since late June when its attack on Sennar state forced nearly 726,000 people -- many displaced from other states -- to flee, according to the United Nations.

The war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands.

On Thursday, the United States Treasury Department sanctioned army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, accusing the army of attacking schools, markets and hospitals, as well as using food deprivation as a weapon of war.

The move came just over a week after Washington also sanctioned RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, accusing his group of committing genocide.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Daglo had been designated for "gross violations of human rights" in Sudan's western Darfur region, "namely the mass rape of civilians by RSF soldiers under his control."