More than a dozen civilians killed in battle for key police base in Sudan

People cross the border from Sudan to South Sudan at the Joda border crossing in South Sudan, May 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick, file)

Sudan's army has faced a multi-front challenge after losing a Khartoum police headquarters to paramilitaries in a battle that killed at least 14 civilians, while rebels attacked troops near Ethiopia.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which since mid-April has been fighting Sudan's regular army, announced late on Sunday a "victory in the battle for the police HQ" of the Central Reserve Police.

Central Reserve is a paramilitary police unit sanctioned last year by Washington for "serious human rights abuses" related to its use of "excessive force" against earlier pro-democracy protests.

"The headquarters is under our complete control... and we have seized a large number of vehicles, arms and munitions," the RSF said in a statement.

A network of activists who try to evacuate wounded to the few hospitals still operating, said "14 civilians including two children were killed" in the same general area.

The activists also said 217 others were wounded, "including 72 in critical condition", by "stray bullets, air raids or shelling" in residential neighbourhoods of Khartoum's south.

The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity reported on Monday that in the past 48 hours 150 war-wounded had been treated at Khartoum's Turkish Hospital.

"The majority of patients are civilians - including children and the elderly," MSF said on Twitter.

Fighting continues, bodies pile up

Residents said fighting continued on Monday in the area of the Central Reserve base. They said RSF shells targeting an army checkpoint wounded civilians on a bus.

If the RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, maintain their hold on the strategic site at the southern edge of the capital, it "would have a major impact on the battle of Khartoum", a former army officer told AFP news agency, requesting anonymity for safety reasons.

The army denied in a statement that the RSF had won a "military victory", and denounced "a flagrant attack against state institutions that protect civilians."

So far, nearly 2,800 people have been killed across Sudan since a power struggle between army chief Abdel Fattah al Burhan and his former deputy Daglo erupted into war more than two months ago, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

Many bodies have been left rotting in the streets of Khartoum and in the western region of Darfur, where most of the violence has occurred.

Meanwhile, troops were also battling hundreds of kilometres (miles) south in Kurmuk, near the border with Ethiopia, where residents said a rebel group attacked army positions.

That same group, a faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), had opened a new front against the army last week in South Kordofan state by attacking soldiers, the army said at the time.

The faction, led by Abdelaziz al Hilu, was one of two holdout groups that refused to sign a 2020 peace deal.

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Source: TRT