(BSS/AFP) - Three civilians including two children were killed Sunday in an artillery attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on Omdurman, part of the Sudanese capital, a medical source told AFP.

Eyewitnesses in the area reported seven rounds of shelling rocking residential neighbourhoods controlled by the army, which in recent days regained most of central Khartoum`s government district from the RSF.

"Two children and a woman were killed and eight others injured in the shelling," said the medical source at Al-Nao hospital, one of the city`s last functioning health facilities, requesting anonymity for their safety.

Since April 2023, the RSF has battled Sudan`s regular army in a war that has killed tens of thousands, uprooted over 12 million and created the world`s largest hunger and displacement crises.

The army and allied groups on Friday recaptured the country`s presidential palace, launching a clearing operation to push the RSF out of central Khartoum`s administrative and financial district.

On Saturday, they claimed several strategic state institutions that had been overrun by paramilitaries, including the central bank, state intelligence headquarters and the national museum.

RSF fighters remain stationed in parts of central Khartoum including the airport, as well as the capital`s south and west.

From their positions in western Omdurman, they have regularly launched strikes on civilian areas.

In February, over 50 people were killed in a single RSF artillery attack on a busy Omdurman market.

Despite the army`s advances in the capital, Africa`s third largest country remains effectively split in two, with the army holding the east and north while the RSF controls nearly all of the western region of Darfur and parts of the south.