by Nurat Uthman
Paramilitaries from Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have advanced on the southeastern trading hub of Sennar as they push to expand territorial gains more than 14 months into a war with the army, residents and officials said on Wednesday.
Families fled the city on the banks of the Blue Nile after hearing the sound of fighting on Tuesday evening, locals said.
“We can hear artillery and heavy gunfire. I left Sennar with my family and we’re heading south because I’m scared for my children,” 49-year-old Nazik Ahmed told Reuters by phone.
U.N. agencies say around 10 million people have fled their homes across Sudan since the army and RSF fell out over a planned integration of their forces and started fighting in the capital Khartoum in April last year.
The RSF has since taken over most of Khartoum, the central farming state Gezira and the vast western Darfur region, as well as many parts of the Kordofan regions to the south.
In Sennar, south of Gezira, many took refuge in surrounding villages, locals said. Fighting raged through the evening then appeared to die down overnight, they added.
The state’s army-led security committee said the military and allied fighters had destroyed seven RSF vehicles that had approached the city and fired rockets.
Reuters was not able to confirm the accounts of fighting.
In a video posted online on Wednesday, RSF soldiers said they would take over the city soon, but called on residents to stay.
