AFP: Explosions rocked Sudan’s capital Khartoum on Monday (April 17, 2023) as fighting between the army and paramilitary forces led by rival generals raged for a third day, with the death toll rising to nearly 100.
The violence erupted on Saturday, April 15, 2013, after weeks of power struggles between the two generals who seized power in a 2021 coup: Sudan’s military chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The conflict, which has seen air strikes, tanks on the streets, artillery fire and heavy gunfire in crowded neighborhoods in Khartoum and other cities across Sudan, has triggered international demands for an immediate ceasefire.
“The death toll among civilians in clashes since it began on Saturday… has reached 97,” the doctors’ union said on Monday morning, adding that the figure did not include all casualties, as many could not reach hospitals due to difficulties in movement amid the fighting.
The Central Committee of Sudan Doctors, a separate pro-democracy organization, reported dozens of deaths among security forces, and some 942 wounded since Saturday, including civilians and military personnel.
The World Health Organization warned that “several” of Khartoum’s nine hospitals receiving injured civilians “have run out of blood, transfusion equipment, intravenous fluids, and other vital supplies.”
The violence has forced terrified Sudanese civilians to remain inside their homes with fears of a prolonged conflict that could plunge the country into deeper chaos, dashing hopes for a return to civilian rule. The RSF was created under former autocratic president Omar al-Bashir in 2013, emerging from the Janjaweed militia that his government unleashed against non-Arab ethnic minorities in Darfur a decade earlier, drawing accusations of war crimes.
The fighting broke out after bitter disagreements between Burhan and Daglo over the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army — a key condition for a final deal aimed at ending a crisis since the 2021 coup they orchestrated together.
The two sides accuse the other of starting the fighting, and both claim the upper hand by declaring control of key sites, including the airport and the presidential palace — none of which could be independently verified.
Three United Nations staffers from the World Food Program are among those killed in fighting in the western region of Darfur, forcing a “temporary halt” to all operations in a country where one-third of the population needs aid.
On Monday morning (April 17, 2023), loud gunfire and deafening explosions again shook buildings and echoed across the streets of Khartoum as fighting continued, Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists said.
Power has been off across swathes of Khartoum, and the few grocery stores remaining open warn that they would only last a few days if no supplies enter the capital.
Appeals to end the fighting have come from across the region and beyond, including from the African Union and the Arab League.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that an escalation in the fighting would “further aggravate the already precarious humanitarian situation.” And US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged the warring rivals to agree to an “immediate cessation of violence” and start talks.
Despite the wide calls for a ceasefire, the two generals have appeared in no mood for talks, with each one calling the other “criminal.”
On Sunday afternoon, the two sides agreed to a UN proposal to open safe passage to evacuate the wounded, but the heavy gunfire did not stop.
Medics have repeatedly pleaded for safe corridors for ambulances and a ceasefire to treat the victims, because the streets remain too dangerous for transporting casualties to the hospital.
