Sudan's Khartoum rocked by army and paramilitary clashes for third day

At least 180 killed and 1,800 injured in fighting, according to UN estimates

Fighting pitting Sudan's army and the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces intensified on Monday, with residents in the capital Khartoum reporting shelling and air strikes throughout the day.

“It's by far the worst day since the fighting began. The shelling, the explosions and the roar of jets never stopped,” said Sulaima Ishaq, a university lecturer and veteran rights campaigner.

Monday marked the third day of what is effectively the latest in Sudan’s seemingly endless civil wars since independence in 1956. But Khartoum, a city of nearly seven million, has never witnessed violence of the magnitude seen since Saturday.

At least 180 people have been killed and more than 1,800 injured in the three days of fighting, the UN's envoy to Sudan said on Monday evening.

"It's a very fluid situation so it's very difficult to say where the balance is shifting to," said Volker Perthes.

At least 97 civilians and 45 soldiers have been killed in the fighting, an independent medical group linked to the pro-democracy movement said earlier in the day.

Neither the army nor the RSF have released casualty figures but each is believed to have lost scores of soldiers.

Sudan's army chief and military ruler, Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, said on Monday that he was open to negotiations to end the fighting, in a shift away from his categorical refusal earlier to negotiate with the RSF and its commander, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

“Every war ends at the negotiation table even if the opponent is defeated,” he told Sky News Arabia. “Even if there is surrender, there is still negotiation.”

Earlier on Monday he declared the RSF was in rebellion and ordered it to be dissolved, moves that are largely academic but underline the unbridgeable gap that now exists between the two sides.

The reluctance of the RSF to meet demands by Gen Al Burhan and civilian politicians that the paramilitary integrates into the armed forces is at the heart of the conflict. It is the only remaining obstacle to the settlement of a long-running political crisis to restore Sudan’s democratic transition, upended by a 2021 military coup led by Gen Al Burhan and Gen Dagalo.

The fighting has continued despite calls for a ceasefire by world powers and regional heavyweights including the US, UK, Saudi Arabia the UAE.

“The situation has already led to horrendous loss of life, including many civilians,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Monday, as he appealed for a ceasefire and dialogue.

UAE calls for de-escalation

The UAE's President Sheikh Mohamed, in a call with Charles Michel, President of the European Council, called for de-escalation on both sides.

The head of state "stressed the importance of stopping the escalation, ensuring the protection of civilians, upholding the supreme interest of Sudan, and returning to the political track", news agency Wam said.

Ms Ishaq, a mother of four who lives in Omdurman, a large district across the Nile from Khartoum. said the thud of artillery and screaming jet fighters the previous night had disturbed her children's sleep.

“I am whispering because I don't want to wake them up to these noises again,” she told The National in a WhatsApp voice note.

“This war is pathetic. No one will win it. We want the Rapid Support Forces to be integrated in the army or dissolved, but we never wanted this done with our blood,” she said.

“We were not prepared for war.”

Ms Ishaq and other civilians reported that food supplies were becoming a concern.

A Khartoum resident said grocery stores were running out of food and that there were long queues outside bakeries on Monday morning.

“They closed down and people may not be able to have enough to eat tomorrow,” said the resident, who did not want to be identified.

“Our only source of comfort is when the calls for prayers ring out from the mosques amid all the battle noise,” he said.

The fighting began in the final 10 days of the holy month of Ramadan, a time when Muslims fast from dawn to dusk and focus on spirituality and prayers. Eid Al Fitr, a major holiday that signals the end of Ramadan, falls at the end of this week.

Noaman Ishaq, also from Omdurman, said streets in the district were deserted except for residents desperately looking for food shops that might be open.

“Some residents are considering breaking into stores and pharmacies to grab food for their hungry children and their sick loved ones,” he said.

The fighting, which is also raging in a string of other cities, threatens to plunge the vast and impoverished Afro-Arab nation into a prolonged conflict that would devastate the lives of the Sudanese and consign it to international isolation.

Jet fighters on the army's side have been pounding parts of the armed forces' sprawling headquarters held by the RSF and the paramilitary's bases in Bahri which, like Omdurman, is a sister city of Khartoum.

Most of Monday's fighting on the ground was taking place around the armed forces' headquarters and the Nile-side Republican Palace, the seat of power in Sudan, according to witnesses.

Khartoum airport, however, remains under RSF control and besieged by army troops. The airport was closed on Saturday, when regional and international airlines suspended flights to the Sudanese capital. Smoke was seen on Monday billowing from the runway area, but it was not immediately clear what had caused it.

Also on Monday, the military said troops regained control of the Omdurman complex housing the state's television and radio. Both were briefly off air, but television went back on air on Monday and was broadcasting footage of army troops capturing RSF vehicles.

Elsewhere in Khartoum, the streets were deserted, with most stores and businesses shut. Schools have been closed since Saturday and work at hospitals has also been disrupted.

In a series of tweets in English posted on Monday by Gen Dagalo, the RSF commander called on the international community to intervene against Gen Al Burhan, calling him a “radical Islamist who is bombing civilians from the air.”

Gen Al Burhan, he wrote, wants to take Sudan back to the “dark” days of former dictator Omar Al Bashir, who was ousted by the army and the RSF in 2019.

Gen Dagalo also sought to present himself as an advocate of democracy.

“The fight that we are waging now is the price of democracy,” he wrote. “We did not attack anyone. Our actions are merely a response to the siege and assault against our forces. We are fighting for the people of Sudan to ensure the democratic progress, for which they have so long yearned.”

Khartoum residents often leave the city during the final two days of Ramadan to spend Eid Al Fitr in their home villages, but many of them were leaving early, braving the shelling and gunfire on Monday to catch buses heading to provincial areas, witnesses said.

The outbreak of clashes on Saturday came two days after the army said the recent redeployment and mobilisation by the RSF in Khartoum and other major cities posed a danger to national security and constituted a breach of the law and the paramilitary's own regulations.

The RSF, which has its roots in the Janjaweed militia that fought on the government’s side in Darfur’s civil war in the 2000s, was legitimised in 2013 by Al Bashir as part of the nation’s border force. A law making it part of the armed forces, albeit with considerable autonomy, was passed in 2017.

It is now thought to be a force of about 100,000, with many deployed in Khartoum since 2019, the year Al Bashir was removed from power.

The paramilitary group has expanded in recent years, independently procuring arms abroad and hiring foreign military advisers. It has vast economic interests, including gold mines.

Its commander, Gen Dagalo, is known to enjoy the support of Russia and several regional powerhouses.

He and Gen Al Burhan jointly staged the 2021 military takeover. The two generals also co-operated in removing Al Bashir from power in 2019 amid a popular uprising.