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The BBC has heard evidence of atrocities committed by retreating fighters in a battle raging for control of Sudan’s capital city Khartoum.
The city has been held by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since the start of the country’s brutal civil war nearly two years ago – but the army has retaken much of it and believes it is on track to seize the rest.
Regaining the capital would be a tremendous victory for the military and a turning-point in the war, although by itself would not end the conflict.
In recent weeks troops have mostly encircled Khartoum, coming up from the south after surging through central Sudan, and clearing city districts in the north and east, squeezing the remaining RSF fighters into the centre.
Vast areas of the reclaimed territory are completely destroyed.
Travelling with the army, we drove past block after block of damaged and ransacked buildings – some of them blackened by fire, many pockmarked with bullet holes.
The pavements in front of them were littered with vandalised vehicles, pieces of discarded furniture, the soiled remains of looted goods and other debris.
But even in places that look untouched, the terror is fresh.
In Haj Yusuf, a district of Khartoum east of the River Nile, residents described chaos and violence as fleeing RSF fighters turned on civilians.
“It was a shock, they came suddenly,” says Intisar Adam Suleiman.
Two of her sons, 18-year-old Muzamil and 21-year-old Mudather, were sitting by the house with a friend. The RSF soldiers ordered them inside, then shot them in the back as they entered the gate, says Ms Suleiman.
Muzamil escaped with a bullet wound in his leg…
The military was using drones to drop leaflets urging remaining fighters to leave rather than fight street by street…
The army has the upper hand now in this terrible war, but there is much suffering still to come for Sudan’s people.
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