KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — The beleaguered Sudanese capital awoke Monday to a third day of heavy 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 areas of Khartoum and the neighboring city of Omdurman. Rapid, continuous gunfire could be heard near the army headquarters and white smoke billowed from the site. Neighbors sheltering in their homes reported blackouts and looting.
“There are gunshots and shells everywhere,” Wadeya Mahmoud Koko, head of a union of thousands of tea sellers and other food workers, said from her home in Khartoum.
A projectile had 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,” she 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 were sticking to their positions and saying they would not negotiate a truce. Instead, they exchanged verbal attacks, each demanding the surrender of his rival. However, they had influential foreign allies, which could bolster diplomatic pressure.
Since fighting began on Saturday, 97 civilians have been killed and hundreds wounded, according to the Sudan Doctors Union, a pro-democracy group that counts casualties.
There was no official data on the number of combatants killed.
Images shared online on Monday appeared to show RSF barracks in Omdurman. The bodies of dozens of men in camouflage uniforms were scattered across beds and floors in a medical unit and on a sand-floored 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al-Nour, an adviser to the paramilitary group, told Al Jazeera satellite television on Sunday that the RSF had withdrawn from the camp.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 medics said a stray shell had hit a hospital in southern Khartoum on Monday without causing any 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 that violence took place in remote 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 added to the difficulties for Sudan, where some 16 million people, or a third of the population, depend on humanitarian aid.
The World Food Program suspended its operations in Sudan over the weekend after three employees were killed in the western Darfur region. The International Committee of the Red Cross also said Monday it would suspend its work due to the conflict, except in a refugee camp in the southeast.
The two sides agreed on Sunday to a three-hour pause in the fighting to allow civilians to stock up on basic goods. Compliance was spotty and casualties were reported during the humanitarian pause.
High-level diplomats urged a halt to the violence, including the US Secretary of State, the United Nations Secretary-General, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, the leader of the Arab League and the head of the Commission on the African Union. The United Nations Security Council was scheduled to address the situation in Sudan later on Monday.
Fighting 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 its operations in Sudan after three of its employees were killed in fighting in Darfur.
Negotiations had been under way 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 key points of friction, such as the integration of the RSF into the armed forces and who would be in control. The signing of the agreement was delayed several times amid tensions between the two generals.
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Magdy reported from Cairo.
