KHARTOUM — Fighting in Sudan raged for a second day Sunday in battles between rival generals who seized energy in a 2021 coup, leaving at the very least 56 civilians lifeless, tons of wounded and sparking worldwide alarm.
Deafening explosions and intense gunfire rattled buildings within the capital Khartoum’s densely-populated northern and southern suburbs as tanks rumbled on the streets and fighter jets roared overhead, witnesses mentioned.
Violence erupted early Saturday morning after weeks of energy struggles between military chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, commander of the massive and heavily-armed paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), with every accusing the opposite of beginning the combat.
“The gunfire and explosions are incessant,” mentioned 34-year-old Ahmed Hamid from a northern Khartoum suburb.
“The situation is very worrying and it doesn’t seem like it will calm anytime soon,” mentioned Ahmed Seif, one other Khartoum resident, who mentioned he feared his constructing had been broken by gunfire however that it was too harmful to go exterior to examine.
Both sides declare they management key websites, with state tv broadcasting patriotic songs with out commentary.
Daglo’s RSF say they’ve seized the presidential palace, Khartoum airport and different strategic websites, however the military insist they’re in cost, with the air drive late Saturday urging folks to remain indoors because it continued airstrikes focusing on RSF bases.
Footage obtained by AFP confirmed heavy smoke billowing from a constructing close to the military headquarters in Khartoum, with the navy saying a constructing had “caught fire” amid the clashes however that it had been contained.
‘Very worrying’
Created in 2013, the RSF emerged from the Janjaweed militia that then-president Omar al-Bashir unleashed in opposition to non-Arab ethnic minorities within the western Darfur area a decade earlier, drawing accusations of battle crimes.
The RSF’s deliberate integration into the common military was a key ingredient of talks to finalize a deal that will return the nation to civilian rule and finish the political-economic disaster sparked by the navy’s 2021 coup.
The Central Committee of Sudan Doctors mentioned they’d recorded 56 civilians killed in addition to “tens of deaths” amongst safety forces, and round 600 wounded.
Medics on social media have continued to name for assist, pleading for protected corridors for ambulances and a ceasefire to deal with the victims, warning the streets had been too harmful to convey many casualties to hospitals.
On Sunday, the stench of gunpowder wafted by way of Khartoum’s streets, abandoned besides by troopers as frightened civilians sheltered inside their properties.
Fighting has additionally erupted exterior Khartoum, together with within the troubled western Darfur area.
In the japanese border state of Kassala, the military fired artillery at a paramilitary camp, witness Hussein Saleh mentioned.
‘No negotiations’
UN chief Antonio Guterres known as for “an immediate cessation of hostilities,” whereas US Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned the preventing “threatens the security and safety of Sudanese civilians.
Similar appeals came from the African Union, Britain, China, the European Union and Russia, while Pope Francis said he was following the events “with concern” and urged dialogue.
The AU is to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday, as is the Arab League, following a request by Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
But the two generals appear in no mood for talks. In an interview with UAE-based Sky News Arabia, Daglo, also known as Hemeti, said, “Burhan the legal should give up.
The military declared Daglo a “wanted criminal” and the RSF a “rebel militia,” saying there “will be no negotiations or talks until the dissolution” of the group.
The newest violence, throughout the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, got here after greater than 120 civilians had already been killed in a crackdown on common pro-democracy demonstrations over the previous 18 months.
The October 2021 coup triggered worldwide assist cuts and sparked near-weekly protests, including to the deepening troubles of one of many world’s poorest nations.
Burhan, a profession soldier from northern Sudan who rose by way of the ranks underneath the three-decade rule of now jailed Islamist common Bashir, has mentioned the coup was “necessary” to incorporate extra factions into politics.
Daglo later known as the coup a “mistake” that did not result in change and reinvigorated remnants of Bashir’s regime ousted by the military in 2019 following mass protests. — Agence France-Presse
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
