Sudan Conflict: With explosions and gunfire rumbling outside, Sudanese in the capital Khartoum and other cities huddled in their homes for a third day on Monday, while the army and a powerful rival force fought in the streets for control of the country.
UN envoy Volker Perthes told reporters that at least 185 people have been killed and more than 1,800 wounded since the fighting began. Both sides are using tanks, artillery and other heavy weapons in densely populated areas. Fighter jets swooped overhead and anti-aircraft fire lit up the sky as darkness fell.
the death toll could be much higher
The death toll could be much higher as many bodies lay in the streets around central Khartoum where no one can reach because of the conflict. There has been no official word on how many civilians or combatants have been killed. The doctors’ syndicate had earlier put the civilian death toll at 97.
Violence erupted suddenly over the weekend between the country’s two top generals, each backed by tens of thousands of heavily armed fighters, trapping millions of people in their homes or wherever they could find shelter, supplies running short And many hospitals were forced to close. Below
Top diplomats on four continents brokered a ceasefire, and the United Nations Security Council was ready to discuss the crisis. In addition, a UN diplomat was also set on fire at his home.
“The bullets and shelling are everywhere,” said Awadeya Mahmoud Koko, head of a union for thousands of tea vendors and other food workers, from his home in Khartoum’s southern district.
He said a shell hit a neighboring house on Sunday, killing at least three people. “We couldn’t take him to the hospital or bury him.”
88 students and staff are trapped in the engineering college
In central Khartoum, there was continuous shelling and white smoke rose near the main military headquarters, a major battlefield. At least 88 students and staff have been trapped in the library of the College of Engineering at the University of Khartoum since the fighting began, a student said in a video posted online on Monday.
One student was killed and another injured during the clash outside, he said. They don’t have 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 scenes of fighting in the capital and its surrounding city of Omdurman, across the Nile, were unprecedented. The turmoil comes just days before Sudanese celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting.
The power struggle pits Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, commander of the armed forces, against Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the Rapid Support Force, a paramilitary group. The former allies jointly organized the October 2021 military coup. The violence has raised the specter of civil war just as the Sudanese try to revive the drive for a democratic, civilian government after decades of military rule.
Under international pressure, Burhan and Dagallo had recently agreed to a framework agreement with political parties and pro-democracy groups, but tensions over the RSF’s integration into the armed forces and its future chain of command have led to repeated delays in signing. Delayed several times.
UN calls for ceasefire
The US, the United Nations and others have called for a ceasefire. Egypt, which backs Sudan’s army, and Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – which have forged closer ties with the RSF in recent years as it has sent thousands of fighters to support its war in Yemen – are on both sides. has also been asked to stand.
But both generals have dug in so far, demanding each other’s surrender and rejecting talks.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, tweeted that the EU ambassador to Sudan was “attacked in his own residence,” without providing further details. EU officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
There was firing in several areas of the capital.
Dagalo, whose forces were drawn from the infamous Janjaweed militia in Sudan’s Darfur region, portrayed himself as a defender of democracy and described Burhan as an aggressor and a “radical Islamist”. Both generals have a long history of human rights abuses and their military has cracked down on pro-democracy activists. There was heavy shelling in the capital and several parts of Omdurman, with both sides deploying thousands of soldiers in almost every neighbourhood.
The Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate said, out of about 20 hospitals in total, twelve hospitals in the capital region have been “forced evacuated” and “out of service” due to strikes or power cuts. A statement late on Monday said four other hospitals outside the capital had also closed. Hadiya Sayeed said she and her three children had taken refuge in a room on the ground floor of their home for fear of shelling as shelling hit their outer district in northern Khartoum. They have food for a few more days, but “after that we don’t know what to do,” she said.
TV stations raided
Residents said fierce fighting with artillery and other heavy weapons broke out in the Gabra neighborhood southwest of Khartoum on Monday afternoon. Asma al-Toum, a doctor who lives in the area, said people were trapped and screaming inside their homes.
Fighting has been particularly fierce around each side’s main bases and strategic government buildings – all of which are in residential areas. The army claimed to have secured the main television building in Omdurman on Monday, defending it from the RSF after several days of fighting. State-run Sudan TV resumed broadcasting. On Sunday, the RSF said it abandoned its main barracks and base in Omdurman, which was stormed by airstrikes by the armed forces.
(with inputs from AP)