Smoke billows above residential buildings in Khartoum on April 16, as fighting in Sudan raged for a second day in battles between rival generals.-/AFP/Getty Images
Sudan’s military has launched air strikes against a powerful militia as it begins regaining control of key sites that the paramilitary force had captured, but the fierce battles across the country were showing no signs of ending after a weekend of bloodshed and destruction.
Despite a United Nations announcement that its envoys had brokered a brief humanitarian “pause” in the fighting on Sunday, residents in the capital Khartoum said the heavy gunfire was continuing. The fighting has killed at least 83 people and injured 1,126, leaving many hospitals running out of blood and other medical supplies, the World Health Organization said on Sunday night.
Sudan’s conflict explained: What’s behind the latest fighting?
Fighting with heavy weapons between the Sudanese military and the militia known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) was reported in more than a dozen towns and cities across the country, including the Darfur region.
The RSF, with an estimated 100,000 fighters, had been allied with the military in seizing power through coups in 2019 and 2021, but their coalition fell apart this month as they jostled for power during negotiations over a promised civilian-led government and elections.
The fighting erupted on Saturday with both sides wielding heavy machine guns and armoured vehicles. The military deployed fighter jets and helicopters to attack the RSF, while the militia seized the Khartoum airport and vowed to capture or kill the country’s military commander. Khartoum’s skies were filled with smoke as several airplanes and buildings were torched.
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Civilian casualties have mounted rapidly because many of the targets are military and paramilitary headquarters and bases in the middle of crowded cities.
“Heavy gunfire and blasts are happening in the proximity of densely populated residential areas and civilian infrastructure, with civilian casualties being reported in various locations,” the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a plea for a ceasefire on Sunday.
The UN’s food agency, the World Food Programme (WFP), suspended its operations in Sudan on Sunday after three of its aid workers were killed and two severely injured by the fighting in Darfur. “I am appalled and heartbroken by the tragic deaths,” WFP executive director Cindy McCain said in a statement.
She said a UN humanitarian airplane was seriously damaged by gunfire at the Khartoum airport, weakening the WFP’s ability to move food and humanitarian workers.
The UN emergency relief co-ordinator, Martin Griffiths, said he was worried by the fighting. “With nearly 16 million – or a third of the population – in need of humanitarian aid, more violence will only make things worse,” he said on Twitter.
The African Union’s peace and security council held an emergency session on Sunday to discuss the Sudan clashes, while U.S. diplomats held urgent talks with Middle Eastern leaders to discuss a strategy.
“Canada is deeply concerned by the armed clashes in Sudan,” Global Affairs Canada said in a statement. “All parties must commit to the political process and the establishment of a civilian-led transitional government without delay.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the fighting was jeopardizing the long-standing effort to restore Sudan’s transition to democratic rule.
The battles began with almost non-stop gunfire and explosions in Khartoum, but the fighting quickly spread across the country.
“While most eyes are on Khartoum, this is a nation-wide war, with Darfur especially in the crosshairs,” said Alan Boswell, the Horn of Africa director at the International Crisis Group, in a tweet on Sunday. “This was always the nightmare scenario. A fight to the end could be endless and will fragment and spread beyond.”
The clashes between Sudan’s regular military and the RSF could drag in neighbouring countries, since each side is backed by a complex web of foreign allies. In a video posted online, the RSF showed dozens of disarmed Egyptian soldiers that it claimed to have detained at a strategic airport in Merowe in northern Sudan, where the Egyptians had been stationed.
The RSF, led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, has its origins in the notorious Janjaweed militia in Darfur. It was widely accused of massacres and other war crimes in Darfur in the early 2000s when former dictator Omar al-Bashir deployed the militia to crush a rebellion in the region. Later it expanded its presence across the country, and reportedly has links to Russian military contractors and the armies of several Gulf states.
Sudan’s military-dominated regime is headed by the army leader, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, while Gen. Dagalo is the deputy leader. Under pressure from the United Nations and Western governments, the two generals had agreed in December that they would hand back power to a civilian-led government this month, with the RSF to be integrated into the regular army. But this process has now been jeopardized by the deadly fighting between the two sides in Khartoum and elsewhere.
On Saturday, the military denounced the RSF as “rebels,” while Gen. Dagalo declared that Gen. Burhan would be captured or “die like a dog.”
Geoffrey York