Khartoum (AFP) – With explosions and gunfire blaring outside, Sudanese in the capital Khartoum and other cities on Monday forced their homes as the army and powerful rival forces took to the streets to fight for control of the country.
At least 185 people have been killed and more than 1,800 injured since the fighting broke out, UN envoy Volker Perthes told reporters. Both sides use tanks, artillery, and other heavy weapons in populated areas. Fighters flew overhead, anti-aircraft fire lit up the sky, and darkness fell.
The toll could be even higher as the streets of Khartoum’s center are full of corpses that no one can reach due to clashes. There is no official word on how many civilians or combatants have been killed. A group of doctors previously estimated the civilian death toll at 97, he said.
Just four years before him, Sudan sparked hope after a popular uprising helped oust longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir.
But the turmoil that followed, especially his 2021 coup, thwarted pro-democracy movements and destroyed the economy. About 16 million people, her third of the population, depend on humanitarian aid in her third-largest resource-rich country in Africa. International charity Save the Children said it had temporarily suspended most of its activities in Sudan. Looters are said to have raided his office in Darfur and stole medical supplies, a laptop, his computer, a vehicle and a refrigerator. The World Food Program shut down operations over the weekend after the deaths of three of his staff in Darfur, and the International Rescue Commission also shut down most operations.
The United Nations Security Council was ready to discuss developments as the United States, the European Union, Africa and Arab countries all called for an end to the fighting. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he was consulting with the Arab League, the African Union and regional leaders, urging anyone with influence to push for peace.
Blinken called for an immediate 24-hour truce as a step towards a longer truce.
In a joint statement on Tuesday, the G-7 foreign ministers condemned the fighting. “We urge both parties to immediately end hostilities without preconditions,” he said, urging them to return to negotiations and defuse tensions.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said late Monday that Cairo is in “constant contact” with both the military and the RSF, urging them to stop fighting and return to negotiations.
However, both generals dug in so far and demanded the other’s surrender. The European Union’s head of foreign policy, Josep Borrell, tweeted that the EU ambassador to Sudan was “attacked at his home,” but gave no details.EU officials responded to a request for comment.
Emerging from the notorious Janjaweed militia in the Darfur region of Sudan, Dagalo has described himself as an advocate of democracy and branded Barhan an aggressor and a “radical Islamist”. Generals also have a long history of human rights violations, and their military cracked down on pro-democracy activists.
Heavy firefights erupted in the capital and some areas of Omdurman, with both sides deploying tens of thousands of troops in almost all areas.
According to the Sudan Medical Association, his 12 hospitals in the metropolitan area have been “evacuated” and “out of order” due to attacks and power outages, with a total of about 20 hospitals. Four hospitals outside the capital were also closed, he added in a statement late Monday.
On Monday, the military claimed to have secured a major television building in Omdurman to stop the RSF after days of fighting. Sudanese state television resumes broadcasting.
The RSF said it had evacuated its main barracks and base in Omdurman, which had been bombed by airstrikes. Videos posted online on Monday showed the bodies of dozens of men, believed to be RSF fighters, strewn across the base’s beds, clinic floor and outside courtyard.
The army and his RSF also fought in most of the country’s major centers, including the western Darfur region bordering Egypt and Ethiopia and parts of the north and east. On Monday, fighting raged around the strategic air base in Merowe, about 350 kilometers northwest of the capital, as both sides claimed control of the facility.
