Violent Clashes and Fires in Khartoum: Government Headquarters Targeted

2023-09-17 23:14:00

Fires that broke out in a number of government headquarters on Sunday in Khartoum

Sudan

The army said that the Rapid Support Forces “burned the headquarters of the Ministry of Justice, the Standards Authority, and an oil company in the capital,” while the latter stated that army aviation “deliberately bombed the infrastructure.”

Published on: September 18, 2023: 03:14 AM GST Last updated: September 18, 2023: 03:42 AM GST

On Sunday, the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces exchanged accusations of burning government institutions and bodies in the center of the capital, Khartoum, while violent clashes continued between the two sides.

Sudanese army spokesman Nabil Abdullah said in a statement that the Rapid Support Forces “continue to systematically destroy and sabotage vital facilities and infrastructure.”

Abdullah stated that the Rapid Support Forces “burned the headquarters of the Greater Nile Petroleum Company, the Ministry of Justice tower, and the Sudanese Authority for Standardization and Metrology tower” in central Khartoum.

He added: “The militia looted and burned the Bank of the Coast and Sahara tower” in Khartoum.

For its part, the Rapid Support Forces said in a statement on the X platform (formerly Twitter) that army aviation “continued deliberate bombing operations on infrastructure and vital areas in Khartoum with the aim of destroying them.”

It reported that “the deliberate bombing operations in Khartoum included the buildings of the Ministry of Justice, the Tax Office, the General Authority for Standardization and Metrology tower, and the Nile Petroleum Company tower.”

Earlier on Sunday, Khartoum witnessed violent clashes, artillery shelling, and intense military aircraft overflights in several areas, and plumes of smoke rose from several buildings in the center of the Sudanese capital.

Fires that broke out in a number of government headquarters on Sunday in Khartoum

For the second day in a row, the Rapid Support Forces attacked the headquarters of the Sudanese Army General Command in central Khartoum, where flames rose from several towers in the heart of the capital.

Clashes took place around the army headquarters, in which all types of weapons were used.

Thick black smoke covered the sky of the Sudanese capital. Pictures circulated on social media showed the windows of several buildings in central Khartoum being smashed and bullets penetrating their walls.

On Sunday, a committee of lawyers denounced the dozens of civilian deaths in the fighting that has continued since Friday.

In North Kordofan state (350 kilometers west of the capital), the army and the Rapid Support Forces exchanged artillery shelling on Sunday, according to what residents reported.