As explosions and gunfire rang out outside, Sudanese in the capital Khartoum and other cities huddled in their homes for a third day on Monday, as the army and a powerful rival force battled in the streets for control of the country.
More than 180 people have been killed and more than 1,800 injured since fighting broke out, said United Nations envoy Volker Perthes. The two sides are using tanks, artillery and other heavy weapons in densely populated areas. Fighter jets flew overhead and anti-aircraft fire lit up the skies as darkness fell.
The toll could be much higher as there are many bodies in the streets around central Khartoum that no one can reach due to the clashes. There are no official reports on how many civilians or combatants have been killed. The doctors union previously estimated the number of civilian deaths at 97.
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The sudden eruption of violence over the weekend between the nation’s two top generals, each backed by tens of thousands of fighters, trapped millions in their homes or wherever they could find shelter, with supplies running low in many areas. Top diplomats from four continents were quick to broker a truce, with the UN Security Council poised to discuss the crisis.
“Gunfire and shelling are everywhere,” said Awadeya Mahmoud Koko, head of a union of thousands of tea sellers and other food workers, from his home in a southern district of Khartoum.
He said a shell hit a neighbor’s house on Sunday, killing at least three people. “We couldn’t take them to the hospital or bury them.”
Continuous gunfire erupted in central Khartoum and white smoke billowed near the main military headquarters, an important battlefront. Nearby, at least 88 students and staff members have been trapped in the Khartoum University engineering college library since the fighting began, one of the students said in a video posted online Monday. One student was killed in the clashes outside and another was injured, he said. They have no food or water, he said, showing a room full of people sleeping on the floor.
Even in a country with a long history of military coups, the fighting scenes in the capital and adjacent city Omdurman across the Nile River were unprecedented. The uproar comes just days before the Sudanese celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting.
The power struggle pits General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, commander of the armed forces, against General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group. The former allies jointly orchestrated an October 2021 military coup that derailed Sudan’s transition to democracy. The violence now threatens to plunge the country into wider civil strife just as the Sudanese were trying to revive the push for democratic, civilian rule after decades of military rule.
The United States, the United Nations and others have called for a truce. Egypt, which supports Sudan’s military, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which have forged close ties with the RSF in recent years by sending thousands of fighters to support their war in Yemen, have also asked both sides to resign.
But so far both generals have bypassed, demanding the surrender of the other and ruling out negotiations.
A conflict between two Sudanese generals left at least 180 dead and another 1,800 injured. (AP Photo/Marwan Ali)
Dagalo, whose forces grew out of the notorious Janjaweed militias in Sudan’s Darfur region, came out in a statement on Twitter on Monday as a defender of democracy and branded Burhan as the aggressor and a “radical Islamist”. Both generals have a long history of human rights abuses and have cracked down on pro-democracy activists.
Heavy firefights raged across multiple parts of the capital and Omdurman, where the two sides brought in tens of thousands of soldiers, stationing them in nearly every neighborhood. At least six hospitals in Khartoum have been closed due to damage caused by fighting, nearby clashes or because they ran out of fuel, said Atiya Abdalla Atiya, secretary of the Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate.
Hadia Saeed, a housewife, said she and her three children were taking shelter in a ground floor room of their house in fear of shelling as gunfire rang out in their Bahri district north of Khartoum. They have food for a few more days, but “we don’t know what to do after that,” she said.
Residents said fierce fighting with artillery and other heavy weapons raged on Monday afternoon in the Gabra neighborhood of southwest Khartoum. People were trapped and screaming inside their homes, said Asmaa al-Toum, a doctor who lives in the area.
The fighting was particularly fierce around both sides’ main bases, located between civilian areas and at strategic government buildings.
The military on Monday said it had secured the main television building in Omdurman, pushing back RSF fighters who had been trying to take over the building for days. Sudanese state TV resumed broadcasting.
The army made a significant gain on Sunday when the RSF said it abandoned its main barracks and base, in Omdurman, which the military had hit with airstrikes. Online videos on Monday purported to show the bodies of dozens of men said to be RSF fighters at the base, strewn across beds, the floor of a clinic and outside in a courtyard. The authenticity of the videos cannot be independently confirmed.
The military and RSF were also fighting in most of the country’s major centres, including the West Darfur region and parts of the north and east, bordering Egypt and Ethiopia. Battles raged on Monday around a strategic air base in Merowe, some 350 kilometers (215 miles) northwest of the capital, with both sides claiming control of the facility.
Just four years ago, Sudan inspired hope after a popular uprising helped depose longtime autocratic leader Omar al-Bashir.
But the turmoil since then, especially the 2021 coup, has frustrated the democratic drive and wrecked the economy. A third of the population – some 16 million people – now depends on humanitarian assistance in the resource-rich nation, Africa’s third largest.
Save the Children, an international charity, said it had temporarily suspended most of its operations across Sudan. He said looters broke into his offices in Darfur, stealing medical supplies, laptops, vehicles and a refrigerator. The World Food Program suspended operations over the weekend after three employees were killed in Darfur, and the International Rescue Committee also halted most operations.
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With the United States, the European Union, African and Arab nations calling for an end to the fighting, the United Nations Security Council is expected to discuss developments in Sudan later on Monday. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he had consulted with the Arab League, the African Union and regional leaders, urging anyone with influence to press for peace.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry discussed the violence in separate phone calls with his Saudi and French counterparts, Egypt’s foreign ministry said.
At a G7 meeting in Japan on Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Sudanese “want the military back in the barracks. They want democracy. They want civilian-led government, Sudan needs to go back to that path.”
Under international pressure, Burhan and Dagalo had recently agreed a framework agreement with political parties and pro-democracy groups.
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However, the agreement was vague on key points of the dispute, including how the RSF would be integrated into the military and who would have ultimate control. The signing of the agreement has been repeatedly postponed due to rising tensions between the generals.
