At least 45 civilians were killed in Sudan in an attack by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on the city of Al-Malha in North Darfur, while the Sudanese army continues to advance on several fronts in the capital, Khartoum.
The Resistance Committees Coordination in El-Fasher – a group working to document and organize mutual aid among residents – provided a “preliminary list” of victims of the “Al-Malha massacre” attributed to the RSF, stating that 15 of them have not yet been identified12.
Meanwhile, the governor of Darfur region, Minni Arko Minnawi, expressed his deep appreciation for the sacrifices of the armed forces and the joint supporting force in the Al-Malha city axis in North Darfur state.
Minnawi announced on Facebook that they had repelled RSF attacks on the city for 48 hours, indicating that battles in the city are ongoing.
Last Thursday, the RSF confirmed that they had taken control of this city located at the foot of a mountain, 200 kilometers from El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur. They stated in a statement that they had “surrounded the enemy,” with more than 380 casualties in their ranks.
The RSF controls most of the vast Darfur region but has not been able to control El-Fasher and suffered a defeat on Friday when the army regained control of the presidential palace in the capital, Khartoum7.
Al-Malha is one of the cities located in the far north of the vast desert between Sudan and Libya. According to local sources, it also forms a major site on a desert road connecting North Darfur and the Northern State, which is controlled by the army.
Injury of Abdullah Banda, wanted by the International Criminal Court
In this context, the Darfur 24 website reported that matching sources confirmed that the field commander in the Joint Force of Armed Movements, Abdullah Banda, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, was injured in the battles of Al-Malha in North Darfur state. Sources told “Darfur24” that Banda suffered a serious injury that resulted in a fracture in his hands during the clashes that occurred last Thursday in the area.
The sources also indicated that Banda was injured during the violent battles that took place in Al-Malha city, which is about 210 kilometers northeast of El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state. Banda was transferred to the city of Al-Dabba in the Northern State to receive treatment in one of the hospitals there, where medical efforts continue to save him.
It is worth noting that the battles that erupted in Al-Malha resulted in the death of Nasreddin Abdullah, Abdullah Banda’s son, in addition to field commander Abu Bakr Ibrahim Sharif and a number of other leaders, including Mohamed Ali Ibrahim and Nader Saboun Makki.
The International Criminal Court demands that Abdullah appear before it, where he faces charges of committing war crimes as a result of his attack on the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) in North Darfur
