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Sudan: Clashes Renew Around Air Base South of Khartoum

The Sudanese army is deployed in the capital, Khartoum (File photo: AFP)
The Sudanese army is deployed in the capital, Khartoum (File photo: AFP)
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Sudan: Clashes Renew Around Air Base South of Khartoum

The Sudanese army is deployed in the capital, Khartoum (File photo: AFP)
The Sudanese army is deployed in the capital, Khartoum (File photo: AFP)

Clashes between Sudan’s Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continued on Monday around Jebel Aulia in southern Khartoum.

Eyewitnesses reported violent clashes near the army’s air base and the adjacent residential neighborhoods.

Jebel Aulia Emergency Room said on Facebook that the violent clashes between the army and the RSF on Sunday killed many victims and caused great destruction. It urged citizens to stay indoors and close doors and windows carefully.

On Sunday, army spokesman Nabil Abdullah said in a report that the Rapid Support Forces attempted to attack army forces in Jebel Aulia and were utterly defeated.

Abdullah denied reports that the RSF took control over the air base or even approached its vicinity, stressing that the army forces confronted the enemy, and they retreated, suffering heavy losses.

The RSF announced that they had taken control of the al-Nujoumi Air Base after clashes lasting long hours on Sunday.

The paramilitary showed videos of some of its soldiers inside the base, near helicopters and several tanks.

Clashes also renewed between the two sides in el-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan in the center-west of the country.

Local sources said that the Rapid Support Forces fired heavy artillery shells at the western neighborhoods, and the army responded with similar bombardment.

The sources indicated that shrapnel of fiery projectiles caused injuries among civilians.

For its part, the RSF, led by Lt-Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, accused the army intelligence of planning to kill civil leaders in the Ardamata area in West Darfur, saying it carried out forced displacement.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Mission in Sudan recently revealed that it had received reliable resources saying the RSF and affiliated tribal militias committed ethnic violence and crimes.

It indicated that human rights officers are investigating the veracity of these reports.

In its latest report, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that Sudan is facing one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent history, with civilian displacement continuing within the country and into neighboring countries.

The report stated that more than six million people have been displaced within and outside Sudan since mid-April 2023.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), about 4.9 million people have been displaced inside Sudan and have taken refuge in thousands of locations throughout the country’s 18 states, of whom 33,000 people were newly displaced over the past week.

The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, welcomed the agreement between the two warring sides on the Statement of Commitments adopted in Jeddah, under the sponsorship of Saudi Arabia, the US, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and the African Union (AU).

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Arab World

Hundreds of Thousands Flee as Israel Seizes Rafah in New Gaza 'Security Zone'

A youth rides a bicycle as people commute along the al-Rashid road, the only route linking the northern and southern parts of the Palestinian territory, on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
A youth rides a bicycle as people commute along the al-Rashid road, the only route linking the northern and southern parts of the Palestinian territory, on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
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Hundreds of Thousands Flee as Israel Seizes Rafah in New Gaza 'Security Zone'

A youth rides a bicycle as people commute along the al-Rashid road, the only route linking the northern and southern parts of the Palestinian territory, on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
A youth rides a bicycle as people commute along the al-Rashid road, the only route linking the northern and southern parts of the Palestinian territory, on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)

Hundreds of thousands of fleeing Gazans sought shelter on Thursday in one of the biggest mass displacements of the war, as Israeli forces advanced into the ruins of the city of Rafah, part of a newly announced "security zone" they intend to seize.

A day after declaring their intention to capture large swathes of the crowded enclave, Israeli force pushed into the city on Gaza's southern edge which had served as a last refuge for people fleeing other areas for much of the war, reported Reuters.

Gaza's health ministry reported at least 97 people killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, including at least 20 killed in an airstrike around dawn in Shejaia suburb of Gaza City.

Rafah "is gone, it is being wiped out," a father of seven among the hundreds of thousands who had fled from Rafah to neighboring Khan Younis, told Reuters via a chat app.

"They are knocking down what is left standing of houses and property," said the man who declined to be identified for fear of repercussions.

After a strike killed several people in Khan Younis, Adel Abu Fakher was checking the damage to his tent.

"Is anything left for us? There’s nothing left for us. We’re being killed while asleep," he said.

The assault to capture Rafah is a major escalation in the war, which Israel restarted last month after effectively abandoning a ceasefire in place since January.

GAZANS FEAR PERMANENT DEPOPULATION

Israel has not spelled out its longterm aims for the security zone its troops are now seizing. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayahu said troops were taking an area he called the "Morag Axis", a reference to an abandoned former Israeli settlement once located between Rafah on Gaza's southern edge and the adjacent main southern city Khan Younis.

Gazans who had returned to homes in the ruins during the ceasefire have now been ordered to flee communities on the northern and southern edges of the strip.

They fear that Israel's intention is to depopulate those areas indefinitely, leaving many hundreds of thousands of people permanently homeless in one of the poorest and most crowded territories on earth. The security zone includes some of Gaza's last agricultural land and critical water infrastructure.

Since the first phase of the ceasefire expired at the start of March with no agreement to prolong it, Israel has imposed a total blockade on all goods reaching Gaza's 2.3 million residents, recreating what international organizations describe as a humanitarian catastrophe after weeks of relative calm.

Israel's stated goal since the start of the war has been the destruction of the Hamas group which ran Gaza for nearly two decades and led the attack on Israeli communities in October 2023 that precipitated the war.

But with no effort made to establish an alternative administration, Hamas-led police returned to the streets during the ceasefire. Fighters still hold 59 dead and living hostages which Israel says must be handed over to extend the truce; Hamas says it will free them only under a deal that ends the war.

Israeli leaders say they have been encouraged by signs of protest in Gaza against Hamas, with hundreds of people demonstrating in north Gaza's Beit Lahiya on Wednesday opposing the war and demanding Hamas quit power. Hamas calls the protesters collaborators and says Israel is behind them.

The war began with a Hamas attack on Israeli communities on October 7, 2023 with gunmen killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies. Israel's campaign has so far killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, Gaza health authorities say.

Rafah residents said most of the local population had followed Israel's order to leave, as Israeli strikes toppled buildings there. But a strike on the main road between Khan Younis and Rafah stopped most movement between the two cities.

Movement of people and traffic along the western coastal road near Morag was also limited by bombardment, said residents.

"Others stayed because they don't know where to go, or got fed up of being displaced several times. We are afraid they might be killed or at best detained," said Basem, a resident of Rafah who declined to give a second name.

Markets have emptied and prices for basic necessities have soared under Israel's total blockade of food, medicine and fuel.

The Palestinian Health Ministry, which is based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank but has nominal authority over hospitals in Gaza, said Gaza's entire healthcare system was at risk of collapse.