The deputy head of Sudan’s ruling council, Malik Agar, has welcomed negotiations for a further ceasefire but said no truce can hold until all forces are withdrawn from the capital.
There’s been an alarming escalation of violence in Khartoum and in the western Darfur region since the negotiations in Saudi Arabia broke down last week.
Both the army and the rival paramilitary force, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), accused each other of violating the truce, but negotiators have remained in Jeddah.
Mr Agar said the talks there represented the best hope of ending the fighting.
Sudanese military leader Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan recently appointed Mr Agar, a former rebel leader, to replace his former deputy Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, who heads the RSF.
Most of the troops in Khartoum are RSF fighters, and the army appears to have resumed its attempts to blast them out of the positions they’re holding.
Sudan’s paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) alleges it has shot down two military helicopters in a reprisal attack against the army.
The group said the army attacked its fighters in Omdurman, near the capital Khartoum on Thursday morning despite the truce announced on Wednesday.
“But the forces responded to the attack and inflicted heavy losses on the putschists in lives and equipment, including the shooting down of two helicopters,” the RSF said in a statement posted on Twitter
. The paramilitary group said it remained committed to the ceasefire.
Fierce clashes have been reported across Sudan as fighting between rival armed factions continues to spread.
Violence between the army and a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continued overnight into its third day.
Nearly 100 people have been killed, a doctors’ union said, and one estimate put the number of injured at 1,100.
Both sides claimed to control key sites in the capital Khartoum, where residents sheltered from explosions.
Earlier on Sunday, they held a temporary ceasefire to allow the wounded to be evacuated, although it was not clear how strictly they stuck to it.
Doctors warned that the situation at hospitals in Khartoum is extremely difficult, and that the fighting was stopping both staff and medical supplies from reaching injured people.
The fighting is part of a vicious power struggle within the country’s military leadership, which has escalated into violence between rival factions.
The two men at its centre disagree over how the country should transition to civilian rule. Sudan has been run by generals since a coup overthrew the long-standing authoritarian president, Omar al-Bashir, in 2019.
On Sunday and early Monday, the RSF claimed to occupy sites in the capital Khartoum such as the presidential palace, and the adjoining city of Omdurman, as well as in the western region of Darfur and Merowe Airport in the north of the country.
But some accounts indicated that the army had regained control of the airport, with the military saying they were dealing with “small pockets of rebels”.
The army has previously denied that the RSF had seized key sites in the capital, and witnesses in the country told Reuters news agency that the army appeared to be making gains after blasting RSF bases with air strikes.
‘We haven’t slept for 24 hours’
Residents of Khartoum have spoken of fear and panic, and reported gunfire and explosions.
“We’re scared, we haven’t slept for 24 hours because of the noise and the house shaking,” Huda, a Khartoum resident, told the Reuters news agency. “We’re worried about running out of water and food, and medicine for my diabetic father.”
Another Khartoum resident, Kholood Khair, told the BBC that residents could not be sure of safety anywhere. “All civilians have been urged to stay at home, but that has not kept everyone safe.”
The fighting is between army units loyal to the de facto leader, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, a notorious paramilitary force commanded by Sudan’s deputy leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti.
The major sticking points are over the plans to incorporate the 100,000-strong RSF into the army, and over who would then lead the new force.
The brief pause in the fighting on Sunday followed complaints from doctors’ unions that it was difficult for medics and sick people to get to and from hospitals while the fighting was raging.
A chorus of international voices has called for a permanent end to the violence.
Leading Arab states and the US have also urged a resumption of talks aimed at restoring a civilian government, while the African Union has announced that it is sending its top diplomat, Moussa Faki Mahamat, to try to negotiate a ceasefire.
Egypt and South Sudan also offered to mediate between the warring factions, according to a statement by the Egyptian presidency.
The Central Committee of Sudan Doctors reported 97 civilians killed and dozens among security forces dead, as well as 942 people injured.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation says more than 83 people have been killed and more than 1,100 people injured across the country since Thursday, when the RSF began mobilising its forces. It does not specify how many civilians have died in the fighting.
Among the dead are three staff members of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), which has suspended its operations in the country.
In a statement, the WFP said it was “horrified” by the news of the deaths, adding that one of its aircraft had been damaged at Khartoum International Airport during an exchange of gunfire on Saturday, which it says impacted its ability to provide aid.
Sudan state television is reported to have stopped transmissions, but it was not immediately clear what caused the break in programming.
A power struggle between Sudan’s army and a notorious paramilitary force has rocked the country, with more than 50 civilians reported dead.
Residents dodged gunfire in the capital, Khartoum, as rival forces battled over the presidential palace, state TV, and army headquarters.
Twenty-five people, including 17 civilians, have died in the city, a doctors’ organisation said.
The clashes erupted after tensions over a proposed transition to civilian rule.
Both the army and its opponents, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), claimed they had control of the airport and other key sites in Khartoum, where fighting continued overnight.
Heavy artillery was heard in Omdurman, which adjoins Khartoum, and nearby Bahri in the early hours of Sunday morning. Eyewitnesses also reported gunfire in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan.
The army said jets were hitting RSF bases, and the country’s air force told people to remain in their homes on Saturday night while it conducted a full aerial survey of paramilitary activity.
Residents of Khartoum told the BBC of their panic and fear, with one describing bullets being fired at the house next door.
At least 56 civilians have been killed in cities and regions around the country, a Sudanese doctors’ committee said, adding that dozens of military personnel were dead, some of whom had been treated in hospitals.
In total, at least 595 people had been injured, it said.
Three employees for the World Food Programme (WFP), a UN body that delivers food assistance to vulnerable communities, were killed after the RSF and armed forces exchanged fire at a military base in Kabkabiya, in the west of the country.
Generals have been running Sudan since a coup in October 2021.
The fighting is between army units loyal to the de facto leader, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by Sudan’s deputy leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti.
Hemedti said his troops would keep fighting until all army bases were captured.
In response, Sudan’s armed forces ruled out negotiations “until the dissolution of the paramilitary RSF”.
‘So much panic and fear’
In Khartoum, people were filmed running away and taking cover as black smoke rose over the city.
A Reuters journalist said there were armoured vehicles in the streets, while video showed a civilian plane ablaze at Khartoum airport. Saudi airline Saudia said one of its Airbuses came under fire.
Numerous airlines have suspended flights to Khartoum and neighbouring Chad has closed its border with Sudan.
“We don’t have any electricity,” a British-Sudanese doctor, who is visiting relatives in Khartoum, told the BBC. “It is hot. We can’t afford to open the windows, the noise is deafening.”
Another eyewitness speaking to the BBC via her Kenya-based sister said: “Shooting is still ongoing and people are staying indoors – there is so much panic and fear.”
Residents had not been expecting the clashes, she said, and many had been caught in transit, with bridges and roads closed and many schools in lockdown.
Duaa Tariq was speaking to the BBC when a military plane flew over her building. “They’re shooting live ammunition at the roof of the house next door and we’re just now taking shelter,” she said.
The UK, the US, the EU, China and Russia have all called for an immediate end to the fighting. The UN’s secretary general has spoken to Gen Burhan and Gen Dagalo, urging them to end the violence.
US Ambassador John Godfrey said he “woke up to the deeply disturbing sounds of gunfire and fighting”, and that he was “sheltering in place with the embassy team, as Sudanese throughout Khartoum and elsewhere are doing”.
The RSF on Saturday claimed control of at least three airports, the army chief’s residence and the presidential palace, but Gen Burhan denied this in an interview with al-Jazeera.
There are also reports of clashes at the state TV station, which eyewitnesses say is now controlled by the RSF.
Earlier, the RSF had said that one of its camps in the south of Khartoum had been attacked. And on Saturday evening, Reuters reported that the army launched airstrikes on an RSF base in the northwest of the city, citing eyewitnesses.
The army has said that RSF fighters have been attacking army camps and trying to seize the military headquarters.
“Clashes are ongoing and the army is carrying out its duty to safeguard the country,” the AFP news agency quoted army spokesman Brig Gen Nabil Abdallah as saying.
The Reuters news agency also cited witnesses as saying that there was gunfire in the northern city of Merowe.
The RSF released a video showing Egyptian troops who had “surrendered” to them in Merowe. The Egyptian military said its soldiers were in Sudan to conduct exercises with their Sudanese counterparts and that it was coordinating with Sudanese authorities to guarantee the safety of its personnel.
General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo heads the Rapid Support Forces
Generals run Sudan through the Sovereign Council. Gen Burhan is its president, while Hemedti is its vice president.
A proposed move to a civilian-led government has foundered on the timetable to integrate the RSF into the army. The RSF wanted to delay it for 10 years, but the army said it should happen in two years.
Hemedti was a key figure in the conflict in Darfur that began in 2003 and has left hundreds of thousands dead.
Western powers and regional leaders had urged the two sides to de-escalate tensions and go back to talks aimed at restoring civilian rule.
There had been signs on Friday that the situation would be resolved.
The 2021 coup ended a period of more than two years when military and civilian leaders were sharing power. That deal came after Sudan’s long-term authoritarian President Omar al-Bashir was overthrown.
There have been regular pro-democracy protests in Khartoum since the coup.
