Sudan's army denies deadly airstrike in Omdurman

By Behram Abdelmunim and Iyad Nabolsi

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AA) — The Sudanese army on Sunday denied reports about launching airstrikes in Omdurman, west of the capital Khartoum.

On Saturday, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group accused the army of killing 31 civilians in an airstrike in Omdurman.

But the army said in a statement that “it did not carry out an airstrike on Saturday on any enemy targets in Omdurman.”

“The people of Sudan will not fall for these lies after it has become clear that this militia does not hesitate to kill, plunder and seize the property of citizens and violate their honor since the beginning of its doomed rebellion,” it added.

Sudan has been ravaged by clashes between the army and the RSF since April, in a conflict that killed nearly 3,000 civilians and injured thousands, according to local medics.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that nearly three million people have been displaced by the current conflict in Sudan.

Several cease-fire agreements brokered by Saudi and US mediators between the warring rivals had failed to end violence in the country.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday warned that the ongoing conflict in Sudan may lead to a full-scale civil war.

Sudan has been without a functioning government since fall 2021, when the military dismissed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok's transitional government and declared a state of emergency, in a move decried by political forces as a "coup."

The transitional period, which started in August 2019 after the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir, had been scheduled to end with elections in early 2024.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi in Ankara