A girl was reportedly killed by members of the SAF-allied Joint Force in Khartoum last week, amid mounting civilian casualties from indiscriminate gunfire across the capital.
Local residents and medical sources told Darfur24 that hospitals were receiving people killed or wounded by stray bullets every week. Many incidents occur when armed men fire into the air during weddings, circumcision ceremonies and children’s graduation celebrations.
The Joint Force of Armed Struggle Movements is a coalition of former Darfur rebel groups fighting alongside the Sudanese Armed Forces. Its principal members include Minni Minawi’s Sudan Liberation Movement and Gibril Ibrahim’s Justice and Equality Movement.
In Haj Youssef, a relative said a girl was killed when Joint Force personnel opened fire in the middle of Souq 6. She died before she could be taken to hospital.
Mohammed Mustafa, identified as a Joint Force member in Khartoum, acknowledged that the coalition had received several complaints about civilians being struck by stray bullets fired by its personnel.
Mustafa said some of those implicated had been placed in administrative detention, investigated or suspended. Neither the Joint Force’s official spokesperson nor SAF responded to Darfur24’s requests for comment.
Mustafa attributed the shootings to drug and alcohol use and the widespread availability of firearms. He said the problem was not confined to the Joint Force but also involved SAF soldiers, Popular Resistance members and army mobilisation fighters known as mustanfareen.
No specific death documented in the report was directly attributed to SAF personnel.
In Al-Salha, south of Omdurman, resident Abdelaziz Adam Mohammed said his 13-year-old niece was killed by a stray bullet during a circumcision celebration. The person who fired the fatal shot was not identified.
Mohammed said celebratory gunfire had persisted since SAF recaptured Khartoum, blaming the continuing deaths on the proliferation of weapons among civilians and mobilisation fighters and the absence of accountability.
In another case, Fatima Musa said her father was struck by a stray bullet inside his Omdurman home in June while more than six celebrations were taking place in the surrounding neighbourhood.
He remains under medical treatment, with the bullet still lodged in his body. Police could not determine where the shot originated or identify a suspect.
“Everyone carries a weapon, especially the mobilisation fighters,” Musa said, adding that some were between 16 and 18 years old.
A medical source in Omdurman said hospitals were recording injuries and deaths from indiscriminate gunfire every week, particularly in Omdurman, Ombada, Al-Thawrat and Dar al-Salam.
Doctors sometimes leave bullets inside patients when removing them would risk damaging arteries or causing severe bleeding, the source added.
Mustafa called for a decisive order to end what he described as “chaos,” saying security operations involving SAF, police, intelligence services and the Joint Force were continuing across Khartoum.
