Singa / Sennar / Kassala — The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) yesterday announced the capture of Singa, capital of Sennar, in south-east Sudan. Many people fled to Kassala further north in eastern Sudan. Last week, Military Intelligence in Sennar detained several activists in Mayerno.
RSF spokesperson Lt Col El Fateh Gurashi, said in a statement on social media yesterday evening that their forces had captured all the main sites inside the city, including the 17th Infantry Division base.
Earlier that evening, the RSF stated it had "liberated the 17th Singa Infantry Division from the SAF militia and their allied jihadist battalions".
Sudan War Monitor (SWM) stated this morning that geolocation of videos filmed by combatants "confirmed RSF control at the army base, at the main police headquarters in the city, in the main market, at the state government secretariat, and elsewhere. During the night, clashes reportedly continued as SAF fought to retain control of southern parts of the city".
According to multiple sources, Singa witnessed widespread looting. Markets and other buildings were plundered, while many of the approximately 250,000 residents as well as people displaced from other areas fled the town.
The Khartoum Resistance Committees reported that the people were terrified by the violence and the release of inmates of the Sennar Prison by the RSF.
According to the Sudanese Observatory for Human Rights, the RSF are holding patients and staff at Singa Hospital to use them as human shields.
Advancing
On Monday, RSF troops advanced into Sennar state from El Gezira, controlled by the paramilitaries since December 19 last year.
After "smashing" the SAF defences along a part of the El Gezira-Sennar border at Jebel Moya on Monday, "the RSF feigned an attack east toward the heavily defended frontline city of Sennar, before ultimately bypassing that city and advancing south through Sennar's largely undefended agricultural plain," SWM stated.
The next evening, the RSF targeted army positions north of Sennar town, about 70 kilometres from Singa. The SAF, supported by Military Intelligence combatant units and Popular Resistance forces, managed to resist them and caused significant losses of life and weapons to the paramilitaries.
On Friday, Sennar witnessed cautious calm following the SAF-RSF battles nearby.
"Fighting is still ongoing in Jebel Moya and the area west of Sennar. The Sudanese Air Force bombed RSF positions in Jebel Moya villages," a listener told Radio Dabanga from the town yesterday.
The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have not issued any statement yet. Its latest post on Facebook, yesterday morning, reported about the visit of SAF Commander-in-Chief Abdelfattah El Burhan to the town of Sennar that day.
He had come to inspect "the troops on the front lines in the resilient city of Sennar," the comment said. "He is sharing a meal with them amidst high spirits and a strong determination to liberate all of Sudan from the mercenaries of the terrorist Rapid Support militia (Janjaweed), backed by the UAE."
Displaced
Many people have fled the town in search for a safer place, the source said.
"Life has become very difficult anyhow. Prices are soaring and the people have depleted their savings," she explained. "Most traders have closed their shops for fear of renewed fighting and moved their merchandise to their homes for fear of looting."
Kassala, about 370 kilometres (beeline) further north, has been receiving large influxes of displaced people from Sennar following the fighting in Jebel Moya.
A source from Kassala told Radio Dabanga on Friday that large numbers of displaced people arrived in the city. "The big problem now is that there are no shelters in schools anymore, after they were closed for displaced in preparation for the start of the new school year," he said.
"Moreover, life has become very difficult in Kassala because of the soaring food prices and the absence of aid organisations aiding the displaced. All organisations have stopped their work, except the King Salman Centre, which provides non-food items here."
He added that security officers are preventing journalists and other media professionals from entering the current shelter places "so that they do not report about the problems and complaints of the displaced and the dire conditions in which they have to live in".
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Detained
The resistance committees of Mayerno in Sennar reported the detention of a number of activists last week.
A member of the Mayerno Resistance Committees, who preferred to remain anonymous for safety reasons, told Radio Dabanga on Friday that Military Intelligence launched "a detention campaign against activists and members of emergency rooms [set up by members of neighbourhood resistance committees]".
He said that lawyer Mohamed El Amin Mohamed, engineer Hazem El Jandari,
teacher Mohamed El Bagir, and resistance committee members Mohamed Abrashi and Ahmed Abdelrahman, are being held incommunicado by Military Intelligence.
The activist also reported the closure of the Mayerno Charitable Kitchen "due to the cessation of support and the inability of the committees to manage the work without resources".
