The Sudanese army blocked civilians Friday from entering the city of Wad Madani, where an AFP correspondent saw fighter jets overhead and heard blasts as the war with paramilitaries entered its ninth month.
Soon after the war began between the army and the Rapid Support Forces on April 15, Wad Madani — 180 kilometres (111 miles) south of the capital Khartoum — became a safe haven for those fleeing the carnage.
Wad Madani is the capital of Al Jazira state, where half a million displaced people have sought refuge, according to United Nations figures.
Initially spared from the war, Wad Madani has in recent months seen fighters encroach on the region, mobilising troops and setting up checkpoints along the line of villages between Khartoum and Wad Madani.
Wad Madani’s relative peace was shattered on Friday when an AFP correspondent reported “the sound of explosions clearly heard within the city”.
On social media, users who had already been displaced from Khartoum shared photos of clouds of black smoke, fearing they would once again have to flee brutal urban battles.
Both sides have been accused of indiscriminate shelling of residential areas, as well as targeting, looting and harassing civilians.
The war between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has claimed more than 12,190 lives, according to a conservative estimate by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.
Over 5.4 million people are internally displaced, according to the UN, in addition to nearly 1.5 million more who have fled across borders.
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