Paramilitary fighters have destroyed three military jets at the Wadi Seidna airbase north of the capital, Khartoum, army sources have confirmed.
The airfield is used by the military to carry out air strikes on the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), whose troops have bases in many residential areas of the three cities that make up Greater Khartoum, Bahri, Khartoum and Omdurman, which lie on the banks of the River Nile.
The Wadi Seidna air base was also used by foreign governments to evacuate their nationals not long after the brutal power struggle between the military and RSF erupted in mid-April.
The RSF shot artillery shells from the eastern bank of the Nile in Bahri towards Wadi Saeedna on the western side of the river on Thursday.
The sources denied that anyone was killed or injured – as stated by the RSF – but confirmed that the planes, some of those used in air strikes, had been destroyed.
It is the first major assault by the RSF on the army in several weeks. The lull in their attacks has coincided with a trip made by the deputy leader of the RSF to Chad and several other countries to drum up support.
Deputy commander Abdul Rahim Hamdan Dagalo is brother to RSF leader Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as “Hemedti”.
Chad borders Sudan’s western region of Darfur, where the RSF has its origins in the notorious Janjaweed militia that brutally fought rebels and were accused of ethnic cleansing in the early 2000s.
However, air and artillery strikes in the capital by the army have continued – with rockets now landing at night.
Given the RSF forces are based in residential areas, it is often civilians who are killed in these attacks.
On Wednesday night, dozens of residents were killed in one area of Omdurman.
Official figures put the number of dead in the conflict at around 3,000, but it is thought to be far higher.
Some estimates from Darfur say the death toll in one city alone is 11,000.