Sudan’s civil war expands to new front as fighting intensifies – Firstpost

June 30, 2024

Representative image. File photo

Fighting between Sudan’s military and a notorious paramilitary group continued in a town in a central province, officials said on Sunday, opening another front in a 14-month war that has brought the African country to the brink of famine.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces began their offensive in Sennar province earlier this week, attacking the village of Jebal Moya before advancing on the town of Singa, the provincial capital, authorities said, where new fighting broke out.

On Saturday, the group said in a statement that it had occupied the military’s main facility, the headquarters of the 17th Infantry Division in Singa. Local media also reported that the RSF had broken through the military’s defenses.

However, Brigadier General Nabil Abdalla, a spokesman for the Sudanese armed forces, said the military had regained control of the facility and fighting was still ongoing on Sunday morning.

None of the claims could be independently verified.

According to the United Nations International Organization for Migration, at least 327 households from Jebal Moya and Singa have been forced to flee to safer areas.

“The situation remains tense and unpredictable,” it said in a statement.

The latest fighting in Sennar comes as almost all eyes are on al-Fasher, a major city in the vast Darfur region that the RSF has been besieging for months in an attempt to wrest it from the military. Al-Fasher is the military’s last stronghold in Darfur.

The war in Sudan began in April last year when simmering tensions between the military and the RSF spilled over into open fighting in the capital Khartoum and elsewhere in the country.

According to the United Nations, more than 14,000 people have been killed and 33,000 others injured in the devastating conflict. However, human rights activists believe the number of victims could be much higher.

The world’s largest refugee crisis has emerged, forcing more than 11 million people to flee their homes. International experts warned on Thursday that 755,000 people would face famine in the coming months and 8.5 million people would be affected by extreme food shortages.

The conflict is marked by numerous reports of sexual violence and other atrocities – especially in Darfur, where a genocide took place in the early 2000s. Human rights groups say the atrocities amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.