Sudan’s Khartoum Gripped by Fierce Street Clashes for 3rd Week

Smoke billows from fighting between the Sudanese army and Rapid Support Forces in Khartoum in September. (Reuters file)
Smoke billows from fighting between the Sudanese army and Rapid Support Forces in Khartoum in September. (Reuters file)
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Sudan’s Khartoum Gripped by Fierce Street Clashes for 3rd Week

Smoke billows from fighting between the Sudanese army and Rapid Support Forces in Khartoum in September. (Reuters file)
Smoke billows from fighting between the Sudanese army and Rapid Support Forces in Khartoum in September. (Reuters file)

Fierce street clashes continued to rage between the Sudanese army and Rapid Support Forces, of Mohammed Hamdan "Hemedti" Dagalo, in the capital Khartoum on Sunday for the third consecutive week.

Backed by the Al-Baraa bin Malik Battalion, the army has been carrying out an intense offensive to reclaim the entire city.

Little information has emerged on the details of the battle. Some reports have said the army has made advances on the western bank where the Blue and White Rivers merge. It has also captured some high-rise buildings where the RSF was fortified.

RSF media platforms said the forces repelled army advances on the White Nile River bridge that links Omdurman to Khartoum, leaving it with heavy losses.

The army and RSF have both refrained from releasing footage of the fighting. Reports have however said that the military managed to enter the heart of Khartoum amid heavy fighting.

A Sudanese network of volunteer rescuers said on Sunday the military carried out an airstrike a day earlier on a marketplace in Khartoum, leaving 23 people dead.

"Twenty-three people were confirmed dead and more than 40 others wounded" and taken to hospital after "military airstrikes on Saturday afternoon on the main market" in southern Khartoum, the youth-led Emergency Response Rooms said in a post on Facebook.

Meanwhile, head of the Sovereign Council and army commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan visited the Jabal Moya region that the military had reclaimed from the RSF after days of fighting.

Videos posted on social media on Sunday showed Burhan visiting his forces in the region that lies 250 kms south of Khartoum.

Jabal Moya is seen as a vital area given its strategic location between three states: Gezira, Sennar and White Nile.

The RSF had acknowledged defeat in the region, accusing the Egyptian army of intervening in the Sudanese military’s favor by launching strikes in its push to capture Jabal Moya.

Burhan was seen visiting the troops, praising them for their victory against the "terrorist rebel militia" - the RSF, said Sovereign Council media.

The RSF continues to hold Sennar, Gezira and parts of the White Nile states.



UN Security Council Says Peacekeeping Force Should Remain on the Israel-Syria Border

Israeli army humvees move in the UN-patrolled buffer zone separating Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights, near the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights on December 21, 2024. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
Israeli army humvees move in the UN-patrolled buffer zone separating Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights, near the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights on December 21, 2024. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
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UN Security Council Says Peacekeeping Force Should Remain on the Israel-Syria Border

Israeli army humvees move in the UN-patrolled buffer zone separating Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights, near the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights on December 21, 2024. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
Israeli army humvees move in the UN-patrolled buffer zone separating Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights, near the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights on December 21, 2024. (Photo by Jalaa MAREY / AFP)

The UN Security Council has unanimously approved a resolution extending the UN peacekeeping force on the Israel-Syria border and underscoring that there should be no military activities in the demilitarized buffer zone.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israeli troops will occupy the buffer zone for the foreseeable future. Israel captured the buffer zone shortly after the collapse of Syrian President Bashar Assad's government, The Associated Press said.
The resolution adopted Friday stressed that both countries are obligated “to scrupulously and fully respect” the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement that ended the 1973 war between Syria and Israel and established the buffer zone. The resolution was co-sponsored by the United States and Russia.
The Security Council extended the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force monitoring the border area, known as UNDOF, until June 30, 2025 and called for a halt to all military actions throughout the country including in UNDOF’s area of operations.
The resolution expresses concern that ongoing military activities in the area of separation have the potential to escalate Israeli-Syrian tensions and jeopardize the 1974 ceasefire. It also expresses alarm that violence in Syria “risks a serious conflagration of the conflict in the region.”