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Paramilitary shelling hits Sudan's presidential palace: army source
Paramilitary shelling hits Sudan's presidential palace: army source
by AFP Staff Writers
Khartoum (AFP) May 1, 2025

Sudan's presidential palace in central Khartoum was shelled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on Thursday, a military source said, the second such attack on the capital in a week.

The RSF, at war with the army for two years, used "long-range artillery" launched from their holdout position in al-Salha, located south of Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman, the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

On Saturday, the RSF targeted the army's General Command headquarters in central Khartoum, also using long-range artillery fire, according to a military source.

The attacks come weeks after the army pushed the RSF out of central Khartoum, which the paramilitary had swept through early in the war.

In a major military offensive in March, army forces regained control of the presidential palace, the airport and other strategic areas in the capital.

But the RSF still clings to its last pockets of control in southern and western Omdurman.

Since April 2023, the war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands, uprooted 13 million and created the world's largest hunger and displacement crises.

The conflict has effectively divided the country in two with the army holding the centre, east and north while the RSF controls nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south.

Sudan paramilitaries kill at least 165 in Darfur city over 10 days: activists
Port Sudan, Sudan (AFP) April 30, 2025 - Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have killed at least 165 civilians over the past 10 days in attacks on a besieged city in the war-torn country's western Darfur region, activists said on Wednesday.

The RSF, locked in a brutal conflict with the army since April 2023, pounded North Darfur's capital El-Fasher with more than 750 mortars, tank shells and heavy artillery rounds, said the local resistance committee, one of hundreds of volunteer groups coordinating aid across Sudan.

The activists said the death toll was confirmed by health facilities following what they described as a "bloody massacre" that targeted residential neighbourhoods, markets and displacement camps.

They added that the real toll was likely higher, with many victims reportedly dying at the scene of the bombardments before they could be taken to hospitals.

El-Fasher is the last major city in the Darfur region still under army control.

The battle for it has intensified in recent weeks, with the UN and international observers warning of a possible large-scale atrocity.

The RSF ratcheted up its assaults on El-Fasher and its surrounding famine-hit displacement camps after the army regained control of Sudan's capital Khartoum last month.

The war, now in its third year, has killed tens of thousands, displaced 13 million and created what the United Nations describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The conflict has effectively divided the country in two, with the army holding the centre, east and north, and the RSF controlling nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south.

Famine has officially been declared in five areas across Sudan, including three displacement camps near El-Fasher, according to a UN-backed assessment.

Sudan army chief names Bashir-era diplomat as acting premier
Port Sudan, Sudan (AFP) April 30, 2025 - Sudan's army chief and de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan appointed on Wednesday a career diplomat as the country's new acting prime minister, two years into the country's brutal war.

Ambassador Dafallah al-Haj Ali, a veteran envoy who once served as Sudan's representative to the United Nations under longtime Islamist-military ruler Omar al-Bashir, was most recently the country's ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

The kingdom was the destination of Burhan's first foreign trip after the army regained control of the capital Khartoum from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) last month.

Since April 2023, the war in Sudan has pitted the forces of Burhan's army against those loyal to his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands, displaced 13 million and created what the United Nations describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Ali replaces Osman Hussein, a largely symbolic prime minister installed by Burhan after a 2021 military coup that toppled civilian premier Abdalla Hamdok's transitional government.

Burhan also named Omar Sediq, another veteran diplomat who was involved in negotiations between the army and the RSF in Jeddah last year, as acting foreign minister.

Burhan had earlier said that he would form a technocratic wartime government to help "complete what remains of our military objectives, which is liberating Sudan from these rebels".

Early this month, the RSF announced it would form its own rival government, a few weeks after signing a charter in Kenya with a coalition of military and political allies.

The move has raised international fears that Sudan could be permanently split between the two sides, both of which have been accused of atrocities.

The conflict has already divided Africa's third largest country in two, with the army controlling the centre, north and east, while the RSF holds nearly all of the western Darfur region and parts of the south.

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