Sudan's RSF seizes key police base in Khartoum as deadly battle rages

Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has said it had seized the main base of a heavily armed police unit as it sought an edge in its war with the army during heavy fighting in the capital Khartoum.

The RSF in a statement on Sunday said it had taken full control of the large base belonging to the Central Reserve Police southern Khartoum and posted footage of its fighters celebrating inside the facility, some removing boxes of ammunition from a warehouse.

It later said it had captured 160 pick-up trucks, 75 armoured personnel carriers, and 27 tanks. Reuters was not immediately able to verify the footage or the RSF statements. There was no immediate comment from the army or the police.

Since late Saturday, fighting has surged in the three cities that make up the wider capital - Khartoum, Bahri and Omdurman - as the conflict between the army and the RSF entered its 11th week.

Witnesses also reported a sharp increase in violence in recent days in Nyala, the largest city in the western Darfur region. The UN raised the alarm on Saturday over ethnic targeting and the killing of people from the Masalit community in El Geneina in West Darfur.

Khartoum and El Geneina have been worst affected by the war, although last week tensions and clashes escalated in other parts of Darfur and in Kordofan, in the south.

Fighting has intensified since a series of ceasefire deals agreed at talks led by the United States and Saudi Arabia in Jeddah failed to stick. The talks were adjourned last week.

The Central Reserve Police has been deployed by the army in ground fighting in recent weeks. It had previously been used as a combat force in several regions and to confront protesters demonstrating against a coup in 2021.

The army, led by Abdel Fattah al Burhan, has been using air strikes and heavy artillery to try to dislodge the RSF led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemetti, from neighbourhoods across the capital.

"Since the early morning in north Omdurman we've had air strikes and artillery bombardment and RSF anti-aircraft fire," 47-year-old resident Mohamed al Samani told Reuters by phone.

More deaths in Darfur

Fighting on Sunday between rival Sudanese generals in Darfur killed at least a dozen civilians, said a doctor in the devastated region.

Speaking from the capital of South Darfur state, the doctor said fighting there had led to "a provisional toll of 12 civilians killed in Nyala".

But the source - speaking anonymously for security reasons - noted that "the violence of the fighting restricts movement" of victims to hospitals.

Residents on Saturday had reported battles, shelling and artillery strikes in Nyala.

The United Nations says violence in Darfur has taken an "ethnic dimension" and could constitute "crimes against humanity".

Nearly 2,800 people have been killed in Sudan since battles began in the capital Khartoum on April 15, according to a new toll from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

Almost two million others have been displaced within the country, and roughly 600,000 have fled over Sudan's borders, the International Organization for Migration said.