KHARTOUM: Fighting between rival generals who seized power in Sudan’s 2021 coup continued for a second day on Sunday, killing more than 50 civilians, including three UN staff, and raising international alarm.
Deafening explosions and heavy gunfire shook buildings in the densely populated northern and southern suburbs of the capital, Khartoum, as tanks rumbled through streets and fighter jets roared overhead, witnesses said.
The violence erupted Saturday morning after weeks of power struggles between army chief Abdul Fattah al-Barhan and the commander of the heavily armed paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohammad Hamdan Daglu, in which each attacked the other. Accused of starting a fight. “There is constant gunfire and explosions,” said Ahmed Hamid, 34, from a suburb of Khartoum. “The situation is very alarming and it doesn’t look like it’s going to calm down anytime soon,” said Ahmed Saif, another Khartoum resident who fears his building has been damaged by gunfire. But he said that going out is too dangerous.
Both sides claim they control key sites, while state television has broadcast patriotic songs without comment. Daglu’s RSF says it has captured the presidential palace, Khartoum airport and other strategic locations, but the army insists it is in charge.
Footage obtained by AFP showed smoke billowing from a building near army headquarters in Khartoum, with the military saying a building “caught fire” during the clashes but was contained.
On Sunday, the streets of Khartoum were filled with the stench of gunpowder, except for soldiers, while terrified citizens took shelter in their homes.
Sudan’s Central Committee of Doctors said it had recorded 56 civilian deaths, as well as “tens of casualties” and nearly 600 injuries among security forces.
Fighting has also broken out outside Khartoum, including in the restive West Darfur region and in the eastern border state of Kisla, where witness Hussein Saleh said the army fired artillery at a paramilitary camp.
The United Nations has said three of its World Food Program (WFP) employees have been killed in clashes in North Darfur. It was not immediately clear if Saturday’s three deaths were included in the number provided by medical experts.
UN Special Representative Volker Perthes condemned the killings in a statement, saying “civilians and humanitarian aid workers are not targeted.”
He said he was also “surprised by reports of targeting of UN and other humanitarian compounds in several locations in Darfur”. WFP said a plane operated by the organization “also suffered significant damage” at Khartoum airport.
Medical experts on social media have continued to call for help, pleading for safe corridors for ambulances and a ceasefire to treat victims, warning that too many casualties on the streets are too dangerous to get to hospitals.
Formed in 2013, the RSF emerged from the Janjaweed militia launched by then-President Omar al-Bashir a decade earlier in the West Darfur region, accusing it of war crimes against non-Arab ethnic minorities.
The planned integration of the RSF into the regular army was a key element in the negotiations to finalize an agreement that would return the country to civilian rule and end the political and economic crisis caused by the military’s 2021 coup. will do
UN chief Antonio Guterres called for an “immediate end to hostilities”, while US Secretary of State Anthony Blanken said the fighting “threats the security and safety of Sudanese citizens”.
Similar appeals have come from the African Union, Britain, China, the European Union and Russia, while Pope Francis said he was following the events “with concern” and called for dialogue.
Like the Arab League, the AU will hold an emergency meeting on Sunday at the request of Egypt and Saudi Arabia. But the two generals do not appear to be in a conversational mood. In an interview with the United Arab Emirates-based Sky News Arabia, Daglu, also known as Hameti, said, “The perpetrators must surrender”.
The military described Daglu as “wanted criminals” and the RSF as a “rebel militia”, saying “there will be no talks or negotiations until the group’s dissolution”.
The latest violence, during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, comes after more than 120 civilians have already been killed in a crackdown on pro-democracy protests over the past 18 months.
