Civilians in Sudan have been subjected to a second day of heavy fighting, waking up in the capital, Khartoum, on Sunday to the sound of gunfire and military jets over the city despite a four-hour UN-proposed humanitarian ceasefire between the two main factions of the ruling military regime.
The violence that broke out on Saturday between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and left at least 56 civilians in the capital dead spread to other parts of the country, with the UN’s World Food Programme suspending operations in the country after three of its employees were killed in clashes in Darfur. Fighting was also reported in the eastern border state of Kassala.
It was the first such outbreak since both joined forces to oust the veteran Islamist autocrat Omar al-Bashir in 2019 and was sparked by a disagreement over the integration of the RSF into the military as part of a transition towards civilian rule to end the political-economic crisis sparked by a military coup in 2021.
The US, China, Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UN security council, EU and African Union have appealed for a quick end to the hostilities that threaten to worsen instability in an already volatile wider region.
Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of Sudan’s transitional governing sovereign council, and Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, the head of the paramilitary RSF, agreed to a three-hour humanitarian pause from 4pm to 7pm local time but while firing initially subsided, gunfire could still be heard and plumes of smoke seen in the background of live broadcasts from the capital.
Heavy fighting was reported round Khartoum international airport and the military headquarters. Witnesses said the army had carried out airstrikes on RSF barracks and bases – including in Omdurman across the Nile River from Khartoum – and managed to destroy most of their facilities.
In Nyala, the capital of South Darfur and Sudan’s most populous city after Khartoum, local people told of being forced to flee by the fighting between the two rival factions.
Selma Ahmed, from the city’s Khartoum Belail neighbourhood, said that her area has been emptied of people. “Nobody has remained here, the fight was heavy, people had to flee and reports of looting by armed forces – they love taking cars, even if the car can’t move they just [take it] with a bigger vehicle,” she said.
“The RSF seized control of the western military basement in Nyala yesterday from the army and today they seized the international airport.”
Monitors say 22 people have been killed in the city, with a further 17 killed in Al Fasher in northern Darfur state. Mona Hussien, a university lecturer, said she had never experienced such a thing in her life.
“Even the attack on Al Fasher airport in 2003 wasn’t like this,” she said of an attack which began the Darfur war 20 years ago.
It is understood that in Al Fasher heavy fighting around the army headquarters quickly spread to the bases of the notorious operational forces of the intelligence agencies in the south-east of the city.
Witnesses said the army had also retaken control over much of Khartoum’s presidential palace from the RSF after both sides claimed to hold it and other key installations in the city, where heavy artillery and gun battles raged into Sunday.
RSF members remained inside Khartoum international airport, besieged by the army which was holding back from striking them to avoid wreaking damage, according to witnesses.
A source in the Sudanese armed forces in northern Omdurman said their biggest worry was over Gen Burhan. “He is inside the military HQ at the moment and the RSF sent huge troops there […] some of the military HQ has been burned down but we can’t use air force, [we need] to be careful. Maybe the leadership will decide to use it at some point, however. There will be some victims but in war you have no choices.”
Several groups of people reported being stranded by fighting near the presidential palace and military headquarters in Khartoum. The body of a university student killed in Omdurman lay on the ground for more than 24 hours before his family could use the ceasefire to retrieve him. “Please pray for us, we are on our way to get him,” said his brother, Mohamed Salah.
The long-feared violent crisis between the two main factions of the ruling military regime threatens to destabilise not just Sudan but much of the region, as well as exacerbating a battle for influence that involves major Gulf powers, the US, EU and Russia.