Heavy clashes rock Sudan’s capital as generals’ power struggle devastates country
CAIRO — Heavy explosions and gunfire rocked Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, and its twin city of Omdurman early Friday, residents said, despite the extension of a truce between the two generals whose power struggle has killed hundreds.
After two weeks of fighting that has thrown Sudan into turmoil, a group of international mediators — including African and Arab countries, the United Nations and the United States — pressured the rival generals to enter talks.
So far, they have managed only temporary cease-fires. The pacts failed to stop clashes but created enough of a lull for tens of thousands of Sudanese to flee and for foreign nations to evacuate thousands of their citizens by land, air and sea.
Turkey said one of its evacuation planes was hit by gunfire outside Khartoum with no casualties Friday, hours after both sides accepted a 72-hour truce extension.
The United Kingdom said it would end its evacuation flights Saturday evening, after numbers of British citizens seeking an airlift began to decline. After a slow start that attracted criticism, Britain has run regular military flights from an airfield near Khartoum to Cyprus. As of Friday evening, it had airlifted 1,573 people, including nationals of several European countries.
While many other countries have scrambled to get their private citizens out of violence-racked Sudan, the U.S. has evacuated only diplomatic staff.
“You have another 24 hours if you are eligible to make your way to the airport and we will get you on a plane,” British Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said.
Fierce clashes with frequent explosions and gunfire continued Friday in Khartoum’s upscale neighborhood of Kafouri, where the military’s warplanes bombed its rivals, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, residents said.
Clashes were also reported around the military’s headquarters, the Republican Palace and the area close to the Khartoum airport. All these areas have been hot spots since the war erupted April 15. Explosions also occurred across the river in Omdurman.
Doctors in the Sudanese capital said the Rapid Suport Forces, or RSF, has been abducting medical personnel to treat its wounded fighters — a sign the paramilitary was struggling.
Fighting in Sudan between forces loyal to two top generals has put that nation at risk of collapse and could have consequences far beyond its borders.
One doctor forwarded to the Associated Press a voice note shared on a chat group for Sudanese healthcare workers, warning them not to wear medical uniforms or hand over identification listing a profession if fighters stop them on the street.
Nada Fadul, a Sudanese American infectious disease physician at the University of Nebraska who is working with community health leaders in Sudan, said she knows of five doctors taken by the paramilitary group from Khartoum streets since fighting began.
One abducted doctor said he was forced to an unknown location in Khartoum this week. He said he saw dozens of wounded fighters, a stockpile of medical supplies and two kidnapped doctors working. He spent three days treating fighters with gunshot wounds, burns and other injuries before he and the others were released Wednesday night, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity for his safety.
The Turkish Defense Ministry said “light weapons were fired” at a C-130 aircraft heading to Wadi Seidna Air Base on Khartoum’s northern outskirts to evacuate Turkish civilians. The plane landed safely, the ministry said in a tweet, and no personnel were injured.
The Sudanese military blamed the RSF, which denied firing on the plane.
Clashes between forces loyal to rival generals rage for a fifth day, despite an internationally brokered truce that was supposed to come into effect.
The military of Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and the paramilitary RSF of Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo have failed to deal a decisive blow in their struggle for Africa’s third largest nation.
Still, world powers have urged them to abide the cease-fires. A bloc of East African nations has put forward an initiative for the two sides to hold talks, and various mediators are promoting the plan, including the United States.
Burhan on Friday ruled out negotiations with Dagalo, accusing him of orchestrating a rebellion against the state, a day after the military expressed openness to the talks under the initiative. Dagalo “wants to rule Sudan, seize its resources and magnify his wealth,” Burhan said in an interview with U.S.-funded Alhurra TV, denying that he wants power for himself.
Burhan and Dagalo have been involved in crushing pro-democracy activists, and together they pushed out civilians from an interim government in a coup in 2021. The former allies fell out in recent months in disputes over an internationally brokered deal meant to pave the way back to a civilian government, including over the issue of incorporating the RSF into the military.
Their battles in the streets have wreaked misery on millions of Sudanese. Many have left Khartoum to the northern borders with Egypt or to the city of Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
About 40,000 South Sudanese, Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees who had been living in the capital have fled Khartoum since fighting erupted, the U.N.’s refugee agency said Friday. Many are sheltering in refugee camps, said Fathi Kasina, an agency spokesman.
Sudan hosts more than 1.3 million refugees, including over 800,000 from South Sudan, according to U.N. figures.
Those who remain in Khartoum have been living in rapidly deteriorating conditions, mostly trapped inside their homes for days. Food, water and services have become scarce, and electricity is cut off across much of Khartoum and other cities. Fighters roam the streets in the capital and other cities, looting and destroying homes, shops, businesses and open-air markets.
At least 512 people, including civilians and combatants, have been killed since April 15, with 4,200 wounded, according to the Sudanese Health Ministry. The Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate, which tracks civilian casualties, has recorded at least 387 civilians killed and 1,928 wounded.
Dr. Salah Tour, of the Doctors’ Syndicate in West Darfur province, said at least 113 civilians were killed Thursday in the city of Genena, where fierce clashes among tribal militias have raged despite the cease-fire. More than 190 civilians have been killed there this week, and most of them have not been added to the nationwide tallies of the dead.
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