Violence escalates on third day of fighting in Sudan

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — The beleaguered Sudanese capital awoke Monday to a third day of fierce fighting for control of the country between the army and a powerful rival force, as the civilian death toll reached 97 .

Air raids and shelling were worsening in neighborhoods of Khartoum and the neighboring city of Omdurman. Rapid and continuous gunfire could be heard near the army headquarters and white smoke billowed from the site. Neighbors sheltering in their homes reported power outages and looting.

“There are gunshots and shells everywhere,” Wadeya Mahmoud Koko, leader of a union of thousands of tea vendors and other food workers, said from his home in Khartoum.

A projectile hit a neighbor’s house on Sunday, he said, killing at least three people. “We couldn’t take them to the hospital or bury them,” he said.

The clashes were part of a power struggle between General Abdel-Fattha Burhan, commander of the armed forces, and General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group. The two generals were allies who together orchestrated a military coup in October 2021 that derailed Sudan’s brief democratic transition.

The two men stuck to their positions and said they would not negotiate a truce. Instead, they exchanged verbal attacks, each demanding their rival’s surrender. However, they had influential foreign allies, which could bolster diplomatic pressure.

Since the fighting began on Saturday, 97 civilians have been killed and hundreds injured, according to the Sudan Doctors Union, a pro-democracy group that counts casualties.

There were no official data on the number of fighters killed.

Images shared online on Monday appeared to show the RSF barracks in Omdurman. The bodies of dozens of men in camouflage uniforms were strewn across beds and floors in a medical unit and on a sandy floor area outside. Another video showed civilians inside the base, apparently looting food.

It was not possible to independently confirm the authenticity of the videos, which emerged after the army said it had carried out airstrikes against RSF bases. Mohmed al-Mokhtar al-Nour, an adviser to the paramilitary group, told Al Jazeera satellite television on Sunday that the RSF had withdrawn from the camp.

The group of doctors said a stray shell hit a hospital in southern Khartoum on Monday with no casualties.

The chaotic scenes of fighting involving tanks, truck-mounted machine guns, artillery and fighter jets in densely populated areas of the capital were unprecedented. Although Sudan has a long history of internal conflict, much of this violence has taken place in tribal areas far from Khartoum.

The violence erupted during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends this week with the three-day Eid al-Fitr holiday.

The fighting has added to the difficulties of Sudan, where some 16 million people, or a third of the population, depend on humanitarian aid.

The World Food Program suspended operations in Sudan over the weekend after three staff died in the western Darfur region. The International Committee of the Red Cross also announced on Monday that it would suspend its work due to the conflict, except in a refugee camp in the south-east.

The two sides agreed on Sunday to a three-hour pause in fighting to allow civilians to stock up on basic necessities. Compliance was patchy and casualties were reported during the humanitarian pause.

High-level diplomats have called for an end to the violence, including the US Secretary of State, the UN Secretary-General, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, the head of the Arab League and the Head of the African Union Commission. The UN Security Council was due to consider the situation in Sudan later on Monday.

The fighting has spread to the already war-torn western Darfur region and parts of northern and eastern Sudan near the borders with Egypt and Ethiopia. Over the weekend, the World Food Program suspended operations in Sudan after three of its staff were killed in fighting in Darfur.

Negotiations had been underway in recent months to resume the democratic transition. Under international pressure, Burhan and Dagalo agreed to a framework agreement with political parties and pro-democracy groups.

However, the agreement was vague on major sticking points, such as the integration of the RSF into the armed forces and who would be in command. The signing of the agreement has been repeatedly delayed due to tensions between the two generals.

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Magdy reported from Cairo.