Sudan war intensifies, devastation spreads

The battle for Khartoum is raging in war-torn Sudan.

New fighting rocked the nation's capital in late September as the Sudanese military launched an operation aimed at taking control of parts of the city which have been ruled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF.

AP footage shot in the immediate aftermath showed Sudanese soldiers in pickup trucks driving through the damaged roads of Bahri city, to the north of Khartoum.

The Halfaya Bridge was reopened after being under the control of the RSF.

According to local media reports, the army and allied forces are attempting to seize the Khartoum oil refinery in al-Jaili, about 70 km north of the capital.

Other strategic battlegrounds include Jebel Moya in southeastern Sudan; as well as El-Fasher, the capital of the North-Darfur state.

Fighting is expected to intensify as the rainy season draws to a close.

The head of Sudan's military told the UN General Assembly last week that the militias fighting in his country must put down their weapons.

Sudan has been locked in a violent conflict since mid-April last year.

According to a spokesperson for the U.N. human rights office in Geneva, at least 78 civilians were killed by fighting in the Khartoum area since the beginning of September.