AL-JAZIRA: Ten civilians were killed on Thursday by artillery fire in a residential area of Khartoum, the capital of war-torn Sudan, pro-democracy activists said.
Sudan has been gripped by nearly nine months of war pitting army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against his former deputy, paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
The conflict has claimed 12,000 lives, according to a conservative estimate by the ACLED analysis group, while the United Nations says more than seven million people have been displaced.
In the latest bloodshed, the resistance committee of southern Khartoum said “10 civilians were killed by artillery fire in residential areas and the local market”.
This committee is one of many groups that used to organise pro-democracy protests and now provide assistance during the war.
Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have so far failed.
In early January, Daglo toured several African capitals, marking his first foreign trip since the start of the conflict.
In Addis Ababa, he signed a declaration with the former Sudan prime minister Abdalla Hamdok in what analysts say was a bid to position himself as a key interlocutor.
Before the war, Burhan and Daglo had joined forces in October 2021 to oust Sudan’s civilian rulers, including Hamdok, ending two years of democratic transition.
Unable to gain the upper hand in the war, neither side has been willing to make concessions at the negotiating table.
The RSF appears to have been gaining new ground in recent months, however, with little resistance from the army.
It now controls Khartoum and almost the entire vast western region of Darfur. It has also entered Al-Jazira state, which hosts a significant portion of those displaced.
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