Paramilitary drones on Thursday attacked the Sudanese capital Khartoum for the second day in a row, an AFP correspondent and witnesses reported. Since April 2023, Sudan has been ravaged by war between the Sudanese military, led by its chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commanded by Burhan's former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. The latest attack comes a day after the RSF launched far-reaching coordinated drone strikes targeting five army-controlled cities hundreds of kilometers apart. On Thursday, an AFP correspondent in the capital reported the firing of anti-aircraft missiles from Omdurman, Khartoum's twin city, followed by the sound of an explosion. "Military air defenses engaged with the militia's drones and downed them," an army source told AFP. Witnesses in central Khartoum and Khartoum North across the Nile river also reported seeing drones in the sky and hearing explosions. Across the country, aid workers estimate more than 200,000 people have been killed in what the UN calls a "war of atrocities". The conflict has also caused the world's largest hunger and displacement crises. Burhan and Daglo, allies until they fell out in a bitter power struggle, have spent most of the war in a relative stalemate, unwilling to hold negotiations while vying for a decisive battlefield advantage. The RSF last year consolidated its hold on the vast western region of Darfur and has since pushed to seize territory in the southern Kordofan region and along the southeastern Ethiopian border. The army holds Sudan's center, north and east, and last month clinched a victory in Kordofan by pushing the RSF off a key highway leading to the capital. Daglo in the aftermath said he would "unleash" his fighters -- already accused of war crimes including genocide -- and his forces have since repeatedly threatened a large-scale retaliatory attack.
