Sudan officials: Airstrike kills 17, including 5 children, in Khartoum

VOA NEWS

An airstrike in Sudan’s capital Khartoum Saturday killed at least 17 people, including five children, health officials said, as fighting continued between rival generals seeking to control the country.

The attack was one of the deadliest of the clashes in urban areas of Khartoum and elsewhere in Sudan between the military and a powerful paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF.

It was not clear whether the attack was by aircraft or a drone. The military’s aircraft have repeatedly targeted RSF troops, and the RSF has reportedly used drones and anti-aircraft weapons against the military.

The conflict in Sudan broke out in mid-April, capping months of increasing tensions between the leaders of the military and the RSF.

Saturday’s strike hit the Yarmouk neighborhood in southern Khartoum, where clashes have centered in recent weeks, according to Sudan’s Ministry of Health. The area houses a military facility controlled by the army. At least 25 houses were destroyed, the ministry wrote in a Facebook post.

The dead included five children and an unknown number of women and elderly people, and some wounded people were hospitalized, the ministry said.

A local group that calls itself The Emergency Room and helps organize humanitarian aid in the area, said at least 11 people were wounded in the strike. It posted images it said were of houses damaged in the attack and people searching through rubble. Other images claimed to show a wounded girl and man.