Beirut, Lebanon – On December 9, an army unit attacked an oil refinery in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, killing at least 28 people and injuring many more.
The army says it is fighting fighters from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), an armed group it has been fighting since April 2023.
Speaking a few weeks after the attack, Mr. Mohamed Kandasha, who is a doctor in the area, remembers that he was helping people with severe burns at a nearby hospital.
There were men, women and children among them, a symbol of the indiscriminate attacks on both sides of the Sudanese war.
“The RSF has no interest in civilians and soldiers,” he told Al Jazeera.
The growth of violence
More than 26,000 people were killed from April 2023 to June 2024 in Khartoum alone, while thousands more died from conflicts such as disease and starvation, according to a study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Since the military announced a serious threat to withdraw Khartoum from the RSF on September 25, the humanitarian crisis has worsened.
The recent fighting has resulted in indiscriminate killings, indiscriminate strikes that have killed many civilians and increased risk for local aid workers.
The army and the RSF are former allies who joined forces to destroy the democratic transition after their former boss, President Omar al-Bashir, was toppled by popular protests in April 2019.
After four years, the RSF and the army turned against each other for supremacy. After the first year of the war, the RSF captured most of Khartoum and appeared to be in control of the war.
Then, at the beginning of October, the army recaptured several popular areas and three bridges in the capital region, which includes three cities, Khartoum, Khartoum North and Omdurman.
As the fighting continues, casualties appear to be rising, said Mohamad Osman, Sudan researcher for Human Rights Watch.
“Since October, there has been an upsurge of violence,” he told Al Jazeera.
“I think we are seeing a lot of barrel bombs being used in Khartoum as well as drones, rockets and landmines,” Osman added.
Barrel bombs are unguided bombs packed with explosives and explosives and are dropped indiscriminately from helicopters and airplanes.
Throughout the war, human rights organizations and United Nations experts have criticized both sides for atrocities such as the killing of prisoners of war, summary executions and torture of detainees.
The RSF has been accused of cleansing areas of western Darfur and systematically raping women and girls, according to Human Rights Watch, Al Jazeera reports and local officials.
A serious violation
After the army captured the Khartoum area of Halfaya in early October, many people rejoiced that a year and a half of brutality and brutality by the RSF had been lifted.
However, reports soon emerged that many suspected RSF men had been killed as the army advanced.
“This is disgusting and goes against all principles of human rights,” Radhouane Nouicer, UN expert on Sudan, said in a statement.
“The incident took place while people were still celebrating that the army had liberated them,” said Mokhtar Atif, a spokesman for the Emergency Response Room (ERR), a civilian aid group.
“The army killed these people… because they thought they were working with the RSF,” he told Al Jazeera from France, where he is currently based.
Sudanese military spokesman Nabil Abdullah denied the incident and said the army does not attack civilians, adding that sometimes RSF fighters pretend to be civilians when they are wounded by airstrikes.
“We do not break the law for ordinary people. The army (RSF) is the one who attacks the civilians by killing them, chasing them, robbing them and stealing their property,” Abdullah told Al Jazeera.
On December 10, the governor allied with the army in Khartoum said RSF They killed 65 people in Omdurman.
Witnesses denounced the attack as “terrorist”.
“Every time the army goes to the RSF, the army responds by killing civilians,” said Badawi, a local worker who declined to give his last name out of interest in speaking to reporters in the war zone.
Al Jazeera sent questions to the RSF press office asking them to respond to reports that the RSF is targeting civilians. The press office had not responded at the time of publication.
Dangerous and burdensome
Human rights monitors, NGOs and researchers all accuse the army of preventing aid agencies from carrying out humanitarian work in areas controlled by the RSF.
They also accuse RSF of causing hunger by stealing aid and food markets, raiding farms to destroy crops, and taxing and blocking aid lines.
“The SAF and the RSF, together with their foreign allies, are responsible for the deliberate use of starvation, committing crimes against humanity and war crimes under international law,” the UN panel of experts in Sudan said. he said in October.
Civilians in RSF areas rely almost entirely on ERRs, a group of community-based aid groups that have led humanitarian aid since the war began, local and international aid workers told Al Jazeera.
On Thursday, the ERRs collaborated with the World Food Program (WFP) and UNICEF to finally bring 28 trucks full of life-saving aid.
This is the first time that WFP has provided aid to RSF areas in Khartoum from areas controlled by the military, Hajooj Kuka, ERRs spokesperson in Khartoum, said.
But both sides of the war are still struggling with aid workers.
The civilians in Khartoum North are particularly vulnerable as the region is vulnerable to conflict, said Atif, ERR spokesperson.
He told Al Jazeera that of the 69 humanitarian workers killed in the fighting by the army and the RSF, at least 30 were from Khartoum North.
On top of that, aid workers are struggling to evacuate civilians in Khartoum North after the RSF commander ordered several areas – with thousands of people – to evacuate this month, Atif said.
Roads from Khartoum North are dangerous due to military attacks and the presence of RSF fighters, who are freedom fighters. accused of robbery and involuntary manslaughter and indiscriminate rape of women and girls.
“There is a lot of military fire on the streets, and the RSF being there … means anything can happen to us,” said an aid worker in Khartoum North whose name Al Jazeera did not publish to protect the man.
Safe exit?
The only safe route from Khartoum North is to Sharq el-Nile (East Nile), where aid workers are already busy taking in thousands of people fleeing Gezira district, where the RSF has been killing almost every day since it took a year. in the past, activists and witnesses said.
The ERR has only been able to evacuate about 200 people from Khartoum North to Sharq el-Nile mainly due to lack of resources, said Atif, pleading with non-governmental organizations or UN agencies to support the Khartoum North ERR by intervening to protect civilians.
Deporting people without the military's permission can be dangerous and make aid groups unavailable, Osman said.
Last year, the army approved an attack on the humanitarian aid group of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which would have rescued about 100 people from the war zone in Khartoum, according to the Sudan Tribune.
The attack killed two aid workers and injured seven others.
In Sharq el-Nile, the RSF arrested several ERR volunteers for no apparent reason, Atif said.
He said that some RSF fighters were looking to collect a quick ransom and threaten the ERR.
“These are ordinary people who are helping their communities. There is no need for him to be in danger,” Atif told Al Jazeera.
The opposite should happen. They should be given opportunities, funds and permits (to do their work).