Late on Sunday 25 June, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced they had gained complete control of the Central Reserve Police headquarters in Khartoum, a victory which the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) denied.
During the struggle, which involved continuous shelling, shooting, and air raids which carried on into Monday, at least 14 civilians were killed, including two children, and 217 injured. The majority of patients were treated at the Turkish Hospital, with two thirds of Sudan’s health facilities remaining out of service.
In another egregious incident, on 13 June AOAV recorded 17 people killed and 37 injured when the RSF used rocket-propelled grenades to shell residential areas in El Geneina’s El Jamarik neighbourhood. The RSF reportedly targeted areas where those fleeing other parts of the city were sheltering.
Earlier, on 31 May, 27 civilians were killed and 106 injured when tanks fired shells from al-Shahara, an area controlled by the SAF, towards Khartoum’s populated Mayo neighbourhood, hitting a market.
Overall, AOAV has recorded 36 incidents of explosive violence reported in incident-specific English-language media, which have caused at least 768 civilian casualties – 210 of whom were killed, and 558 injured. The majority of civilians, 43% (330), were killed and injured in incidents where it was impossible to disaggregate harm caused by state versus non-state actors, while unknown actors caused 26% (197) of civilian casualties. State actors, specifically the SAF, reportedly caused 22% (169) of civilian harm, and non-state actors, specifically the RSF, caused 9% (72) of civilian casualties.
Since the outbreak of violence, explosive weapon use has been recorded in five cities across four regions, with Khartoum (434 civilian casualties) and El Fasher (194) being the worst affected cities for civilian casualties of such weapons. The majority of incidents, 50% (18), were reported in urban residential areas. However, the armed clash around the police headquarters caused the most civilian casualties, 231 in total, followed by 170 civilians harmed in four incidents targeting markets, and 166 civilians killed and injured in three incidents across multiple urban areas.
See AOAV’s Sudan conflict briefing here.
AOAV’s casualty figures represent the lowest of estimations in terms of the number of people killed and injured by explosive weapon use. In an effort to quantify the explicit harm caused by specific explosive weapons, AOAV solely records incident-specific casualty figures, as reported in English-language media.
AOAV condemns the use of violence against civilians and the use of explosive weapons in populated areas. All actors should stop using explosive weapons with wide-area effects where there is likely to be a high concentration of civilians.
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