The Sudanese army repels an attack by the Rapid Support Forces in Khartoum and bombs its positions

The Sudanese army says it is making progress in its battles against the Rapid Support (French)

The Sudanese army repelled an attack by the Rapid Support Forces led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) and bombed the positions of those forces in various places in the capital, at a time when fears are increasing about the war spreading to eastern Sudan. Meanwhile, an American official warned of the deteriorating humanitarian situation there.

A military source in the Sudanese army told Al Jazeera that the army repelled, at dawn on Thursday, an attack by the Rapid Support Forces that targeted, with heavy weapons and marches, the Armored Corps camp south of the capital, Khartoum.

The sources also reported that the Sudanese army bombed, with heavy artillery and marches, Rapid Support gatherings in central and southern Omdurman, northern Khartoum Bahri, and eastern Khartoum.

In a related context, local sources told Al Jazeera that the city of El Fasher, North Darfur, is witnessing clashes between the army and the Rapid Support Forces. The sources said that the indiscriminate bombing of the Rapid Support Forces led to a number of shells falling inside citizens’ homes.

The sources added that the fighting between the two sides of the conflict in Sudan escalated violently in various axes in the capital, Khartoum, the states of Al-Jazeera, East Darfur, and West Kordofan, and the city of El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state, and heavy artillery, aircraft, and marches are being used.

Last December, the Rapid Support Forces suddenly took control of large parts of Al-Jazira State, the southern gateway to Khartoum, which is also the eastern gateway to the Rapid Support Forces, whose main stronghold is located in the Darfur region.

Fears

Based on their new positions, the Rapid Support Forces can now reach the roads leading to Gedaref State on the border with Ethiopia, and Kassala State on the border with Eritrea. Kassala State is also the southern gateway to the Red Sea Governorate, where Port Sudan is located.

This prompted Malik Agar, Vice President of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council, to visit Eritrea in the middle of last month, where he discussed the issue of the extension of the war with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki.

Agar said on the X platform that he discussed with Eritrean officials “ways to avoid the spread of the war to eastern Sudan,” during his recent visit to Eritrea.

Aqar's statement came at a time when there was fear that the war in Sudan would spread to the three states of eastern Sudan that have so far remained untouched by the battles, especially the city of Port Sudan, where the only port and airport currently operating in Sudan are located, in addition to the current headquarters of the President of the Sovereignty Council and the Army Commander, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan.

This morning, I met in the capital, Asmara, with the President of the State of Eritrea, Isaias Afwerki. The meeting was characterized by brotherhood and was the talk of a neighbor who fears for Sudan and is concerned about its national security and the security of the entire region. In our talks, we discussed the political situation and issues of concern to Sudanese internal affairs.

1/3 pic.twitter.com/Nw8824idQb

— Malik Agar Eyre | Malik AgarEyre (@MalikAgarEyre) January 17, 2024

Warnings

The poor humanitarian conditions in Sudan prompted the Director of the US Agency for International Development, Samantha Power, to warn of the bad conditions there, noting that “the ongoing conflict in Sudan represents a humanitarian catastrophe,” saying that both sides of the conflict are pushing the country towards “collapse.”

She stated that estimates indicate that more than half of the total population needs urgent humanitarian aid, and the American official said that “the Rapid Support Forces are carrying out ethnic cleansing” in Sudan.

Source: Al Jazeera + agencies