JEDDAH: Paramilitary troops from the Rapid Support Forces launched waves of attacks on Wednesday targeting the main Sudanese army HQ in Khartoum as the death toll from five days of fighting headed for 300.
There were continuous bombardments and loud explosions around the army compound in the center of the capital, and also at the main airport, which has been fiercely contested and out of action since violence erupted at the weekend. “The armed forces are responding to a new attack in the vicinity of the General Command,” the army said.
Thick smoke billowed into the sky and the streets in Khartoum were largely empty. Gunfire rattled in the south of the city, and the army appeared to have retaken a key military airport in the country’s north.
The conflict began on Saturday in a power struggle between Sudan’s military ruler Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and RSF paramilitary leader Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. At least 270 people have died and 2,600 have been injured.
The rival generals declared a 24-hour ceasefire on Wednesday evening, but there was little expectation of success after a previous truce on Tuesday collapsed in a matter of minutes.
Huddled in their homes, residents of Khartoum struggled with power cuts and worried how long food supplies would last.
“Today we were starting to run out of some essentials,” said Hadeel Mohamed, an architect concerned for the safety of her brother who had gone to look for food.
Gunmen have targeted hospitals and humanitarian workers, with reports of sexual violence against aid workers, the UN said.
Most hospitals are out of service and armed men raided a warehouse of supplies operated by the health charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in the west of the country.
There was a heavy exchange of gunfire in the Jabra neighborhood of west Khartoum, where there are homes belonging to Dagalo and his family. The general’s location is not known.
The RSF said on Wednesday that the army had breached international law and used heavy artillery against the homes of families and citizens in Jabra.
The army controls access to Khartoum, a metropolis of about 5.5 million people, and appeared to be trying to cut off supply routes to RSF fighters inside.
Army reinforcements were brought to the city from eastern areas near the border with Ethiopia,
With no signs of peace in the city before Eid Al-Fitr on Friday, some Khartoum residents braved the bombardments to flee to the nearby state of Al-Gezira, to the south, where there has been no fighting.
