18 people were killed and injured in renewed clashes between the army and rapid support in Northern Kordofan State

At least one person was killed and about 17 wounded, following renewed deadly clashes between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the northern Kordofan state capital of El Obeid.

RSF seeks to control the city of El Obeid for its strategic position between Darfur and Kordofan, leading fierce battles with the army in and around the city that have killed large numbers of civilians.

Last mid-week, warplanes carried out intensive sorties targeting RSF positions west of El Obeid.

Witnesses said that violent clashes had erupted since early this morning following the infiltration of a group of rapid support from the western north direction and the looting of a citizen’s car in the Elias neighbourhood by the army. ”

The Sudanese army violently shelled the concentrations of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the Ghar Mountains, the latter of which took a major military camp, while retaliating with swift counter-bombardment in a number of populated neighbourhoods, causing partial destruction of a number of homes.

A medical source from El Obeid Hospital, preferring to withhold his name, said: “Al Obeid Teaching Hospital, as well as the Police and Security Hospital, received about 17 shrapnel injuries along with at least one dead person, an unidentified child.”

Volunteers from El Obeid made calls for blood donations, following the great scarcity of blood and life-saving medicines.

Since the early days of the war, the RSF’s blockade of the city of El Obeid has created extremely complex humanitarian and economic conditions, restricting access to food and medicines. Hospitals suffer from a scarcity of medicines, threatening their decommissioning, and markets are experiencing a significant increase in the price of essential goods.