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.



Gaza Begins 2nd Round of Polio Vaccine Push

Palestinian children receive drops as part of a polio vaccination campaign, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, on October 14, 2024 amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Palestinian children receive drops as part of a polio vaccination campaign, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, on October 14, 2024 amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Gaza Begins 2nd Round of Polio Vaccine Push

Palestinian children receive drops as part of a polio vaccination campaign, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, on October 14, 2024 amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Palestinian children receive drops as part of a polio vaccination campaign, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, on October 14, 2024 amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

The Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip said it has launched the second round of a polio vaccination campaign in the war-ravaged territory.

It said Monday that a second dose of the vaccine will be administered to children under 10 in the central part of the territory over the next three days before the campaign is expanded to the north and south.

The campaign began last month after the territory registered its first polio case in Gaza in 25 years — a 10-month-old boy, now paralyzed in one leg.

Health workers succeeded in administering the first dose of the vaccine to around 560,000 children despite myriad challenges, including ongoing fighting, the breakdown of law and order and widespread damage to roads and infrastructure.

The World Health Organization said humanitarian pauses to facilitate the campaign last month were largely observed.