KHARTOUMÂ (Reuters) –Explosions and heavy gunfire rocked the Sudan capital on Wednesday during the fifth day of fighting after an internationally negotiated ceasefire quickly collapsed. It indicated that two rival generals fighting for control were determined to destroy each other in a potentially protracted conflict.
Witnesses said desperate and frightened Sudanese, who had been confined to their homes for days by the violence, began to flee without a sign of rest. Residents of several areas of Khartoum told the Associated Press that they saw hundreds of people, including women and children, carrying luggage, crammed into pedestrians and cars.
“Khartoum has become a ghost town,” said Atiyah Abdallah Atiyah, the secretary of the medical association still in the capital. The generals’ struggle for power has drawn millions of Sudanese into the crossfire. Their forces have been fighting with heavy machine guns, artillery and airstrikes since Saturday on residential areas in Khartoum, the neighboring city of Omdurman, and other major cities in the country.
At least 270 people have died in the past five days, according to the United Nations, but the death toll is likely to be higher as many bodies were left out of reach due to clashes on the streets.
Fighting with heavy machine guns, artillery and air attacks caused extensive damage to the streets of Khartoum, the city of Omdurman across the Nile, and other major cities in Sudan.
Khartoum and dozens of health facilities across the country have halted operations as they are on the brink of clashes, the Sudan Doctors Syndicate said Wednesday. At least nine hospitals were bombed and 16 were forcibly evacuated, he said. UN World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday that at least 270 people have been killed and more than 2,600 injured since the fighting began, but did not give a breakdown of the dead civilians and combatants. At least 174 civilians have been killed and hundreds more injured, a team of doctors monitoring the victims told.
Brinken explained that his proposed one-day humanitarian truce is a building block for a longer truce and eventual return to negotiations. The fact that, despite high levels of diplomatic pressure, they have not been able to stop fighting for a single day suggests that the generals are still determined to seek military victory.
Conflicts between the military and the RSF have once again derailed Sudan’s transition to democratic rule after decades of dictatorship and civil war. A popular uprising four years ago helped overthrow longtime tyrant Omar al-Bashir, but Barhan and Dagalo joined forces in a coup in 2021. Both generals have long histories of human rights abuses, and their forces cracked down on pro-democracy activists.
Under international pressure, Barhan and Dagalo recently agreed a framework agreement with political parties and pro-democracy groups. But tensions mounted over the RSF’s integration into the military and future chain of command, and tensions that erupted in violence on Saturday led to repeated postponements of the signing, ___ Magdy reported from Cairo.
