KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Fighting in the Sudanese capital intensified on Wednesday with fierce clashes and airstrikes, witnesses said, as delegations from the warring factions continued talks in Saudi Arabia to try to secure a ceasefire and humanitarian aid.
Several residents reported ground fighting in various neighborhoods of Khartoum between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), as well as heavy firefights in northern Omdurman and eastern Bahri, two cities adjacent to Khartoum separated from it by the Nile River.
The Sudanese army has also been shelling various targets since Tuesday in the three cities as it tries to root out RSF forces, which have seized control of large residential areas and strategic locations since the start of the conflict, which It broke out on April 15.
Since late last week, army and RSF delegations have been holding meetings in Jeddah, a Saudi Red Sea port city, for talks in which the United States and Saudi Arabia are mediating.
The conflict has created a humanitarian crisis in Africa’s third largest country, forcing the displacement of more than 700,000 people within the country and causing another 150,000 to flee to neighboring countries. It has also sparked unrest in the Darfur region of western Sudan.
Negotiations between the warring factions aim to secure an effective truce and allow access for aid workers and supplies, after repeated ceasefire announcements failed to stop the fighting, leaving millions of people trapped in their homes and neighborhoods.
Conflicts are not new in Sudan, a country situated at a strategic crossroads between Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and the volatile Sahel region.
But most of the riots in the past have occurred in remote areas. This time, heavy fighting in Khartoum, one of Africa’s largest cities, has made the conflict that much more alarming for the Sudanese.
(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz in Dubai and Mohamed Noureldin in Khartoum; writing by Aidan Lewis; editing by Edmund Blair; editing in Spanish by Darío Fernández)
