Sudan Conflict: Heavy Fighting In Khartoum As Food Aid Needs Grow

Heavy air strikes pounded southern areas of Sudan's capital on Thursday as clashes flared near a military camp, according to Reuters, in fighting that has displaced nearly 1 million people and left residents of Khartoum struggling to survive.

According to witnesses, air strikes by the army targeting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) were heard over many residential areas in southern Khartoum, including near the Taiba camp, while a police reserve unit linked with the army fought the RSF on the ground.

The army has primarily employed air power and heavy artillery to drive back the RSF, which has spread throughout significant portions of Khartoum and its neighbouring cities of Bahri and Omdurman across the Nile since fighting erupted on April 15.

"The bombardment and the clashes don't stop and there's no way to flee from our homes. All our money is gone," said Salah el-Din Othman, a 35-year-old resident of Khartoum.

"Even if we leave our houses again we're afraid that gangs will loot everything in the house … we are living a nightmare of fear and poverty."

Violence has also erupted in Darfur, North Kordofan State, and other parts of the country, but the capital has been the focus of the power struggle.

Both army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, alias Hemedti, are believed to have remained in Khartoum during the fighting.

The army published a video on Wednesday showing Burhan in army fatigues greeting troops at what seemed to be the army headquarters in central Khartoum.