KHARTOUM – The sounds of air strikes, anti-aircraft weaponry and artillery could be heard in Khartoum early on Saturday, and dark smoke rose over parts of the city as fighting in Sudan entered a third week.
Fighting between the army and a rival paramilitary force continued despite the announcement of a 72-hour ceasefire extension on Friday. Strikes by aircraft, tanks and artillery rocked Khartoum on that day, as well as the adjacent cities of Bahri and Omdurman.
Hundreds have been killed and tens of thousands have fled for their lives in a power struggle between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that erupted into violence on April 15.
The violence has derailed an internationally backed transition towards democratic elections.
The fighting has also reawakened a two-decade-old conflict in the western Darfur region, where scores have died over the past week.
The army has been deploying jets or drones on RSF forces in neighbourhoods across the capital.
Many residents are pinned down by urban warfare with scant food, fuel, water and power.
At least 512 people have been killed and close to 4,200 wounded, according to the United Nations, which believes the real toll is much higher.
More than 75,000 people were displaced within Sudan in just the first week of the fighting, according to the UN. Only 16 per cent of hospitals were operating as normal in the capital.
The latest ceasefire, brokered by foreign powers, is supposed to last until midnight on Sunday.
The RSF accused the army of violating it with air strikes on its bases in Omdurman, Khartoum’s sister city at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile rivers, and Mount Awliya.
The army blamed the RSF for violations.
The violence has sent tens of thousands of refugees across Sudan’s borders.
It threatens to stir instability across a volatile swathe of Africa between the Sahel region and the Red Sea.
Foreign governments have evacuated diplomats and citizens to safety over the past week, including with airlifts. Britain said its evacuations would end on Saturday as demand for spots on planes had declined.
The United States said several hundred Americans had departed from Sudan by land, sea or air. A convoy of buses carrying 300 Americans left Khartoum late on Friday on an 850km trip to the Red Sea in the first US-organised evacuation effort for citizens, The New York Times reported.
In Darfur, at least 96 people had died since Monday in inter-communal violence rekindled by the army-RSF conflict, UN human rights office spokesman Ravina Shamdasani said. REUTERS
