Paramilitary shelling on a mosque in eastern Khartoum has killed at least five people and injured dozens, a Sudanese pro-democracy lawyers’ group has said.
The attack on Monday, which has been blamed on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), targeted civilians during evening tarawih prayers at a mosque in the East Nile district of Khartoum, said the Emergency Lawyers network, which has been documenting abuses by both the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).
This is the second reported attack on civilians since the RSF lost central Khartoum, including the presidential palace, in a major government army offensive on Friday.
On Sunday, RSF artillery also pounded Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city, killing three civilians in what eyewitnesses described as some of the heaviest bombardments in recent months.
The Sudanese army claims to have seized control of the main headquarters of the country’s central bank from the RSF as it continues to make advances in the capital.
Nabil Abdallah, an army spokesman, said in a statement to the AFP news agency on Saturday that the soldiers had “eliminated hundreds of militia members who tried to escape through pockets in central Khartoum”.
The RSF has consolidated control in the west, hardening battle lines and moving Sudan towards de facto partition. The RSF is setting up a parallel government in areas it controls, although that is not expected to secure widespread international recognition.
Since April 2023, the military, led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has been in an ongoing conflict with the RSF, headed by Burhan’s former deputy commander, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
But the two-year-long conflict has left the country in a deep humanitarian crisis, with tens of thousands of people killed and more than 12 million people displaced.
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