Sudan’s army appears to have gained the upper hand in a bloody power struggle with rival paramilitary forces after blasting its bases with air strikes, witnesses say, and at least 59 civilians were killed including three United Nations workers.
The fighting erupted on Saturday between army units loyal to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of Sudan’s transitional governing Sovereign Council, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, who is deputy head of the council.
It was the first such outbreak since both joined forces to oust veteran Islamist autocrat Omar Hassan al-Bashir in 2019 and was sparked by a disagreement over the integration of the RSF into the military as part of a transition towards civilian rule.
Burhan and Hemedti agreed to a three-hour humanitarian pause from 4pm to 7pm on Sunday proposed by the United Nations, the UN mission in Sudan said, with both sides saying in separate statements they had agreed to it.
Gunfire could still be heard and plumes of smoke seen in the background of live broadcasts from the Sudanese capital.
The United States, China, Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UN Security Council, European Union and African Union have appealed for an quick end to the hostilities that threaten to worsen instability in an already volatile wider region.
Efforts by neighbours and regional bodies to end the violence intensified on Sunday.
That included an offer by Egypt and South Sudan to mediate between the fighting parties, according to a statement by the Egyptian presidency.
The eruption of fighting over the weekend followed rising tensions over the RSF’s integration into the military.
Discord over the timetable for that has delayed the signing of an internationally-backed agreement with political parties on a transition to democracy after a 2021 military coup.
Witnesses and residents told Reuters that the army had carried out air strikes on RSF barracks and bases, including in Omdurman across the Nile river from the capital Khartoum, and managed to destroy most of their facilities.
They said the army had also wrested back control over much of Khartoum’s presidential palace from the RSF after both sides claimed to control it and other key installations in Khartoum, where heavy artillery and gun battles raged into Sunday.
RSF members remained inside Khartoum international airport besieged by the army but it was holding back from striking them to avoid wreaking major damage, witnesses said.
“The hour of victory is near,” the army said in a statement on Sunday.
But a major problem, witnesses and residents said, was posed by thousands of heavily armed RSF members deployed inside neighbourhoods of Khartoum and other cities, with no authority able to control them.
Sudan’s MTN telecommunications company blocked internet services on the orders of the government telecommunications regulator, two company officials told Reuters.
State television cut its transmission on Sunday afternoon, Reuters reporters in Khartoum and several cities outside the country said.
It was not clear what caused the outage.
The UN World Food Programme said it had temporarily halted all operations in hunger-stricken areas of Sudan after three Sudanese employees were killed during fighting in North Darfur and a WFP plane was hit during a gun battle at Khartoum airport.
The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors reported at least 56 civilians had been killed and 595 people including combatants had been wounded since the fighting erupted.
In a speech to an Arab League meeting on the crisis on Sunday, Sudan said the Sudanese should be allowed to reach a settlement internally without foreign interference.
The armed forces said it would not negotiate with the RSF unless the force dissolved.
The army told soldiers seconded to the RSF to report to nearby army units, which could deplete RSF ranks if they obey.
RSF leader Hemedti, deputy head of state, called military chief Burhan a “criminal” and a “liar”.
