Heavy clashes rock Sudan’s capital despite truce extension
CAIRO (AP) — Heavy explosions and gunfire rocked Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, and its twin city of Omdurman early Friday, residents said, despite the extension of a fragile truce between the county’s two top generals whose power struggle has killed hundreds.
After two weeks of fighting that has turned Khartoum into a war zone and thrown Sudan into turmoil, a wide-ranging group of international mediators — including African and Arab nations, the United Nations and the United States — were intensifying their pressure on the rival generals to enter talks on resolving the crisis.
So far, however, they have managed to achieve only a series of fragile temporary cease-fires that failed to stop clashes but created enough of a lull for tens of thousands of Sudanese to flee to safer areas and for foreign nations to evacuate thousands of their citizens by land, air and sea.
In a sign of the persistent chaos, Turkey said one of its evacuation planes was hit by gunfire outside Khartoum with no casualties on Friday, hours after both sides accepted a 72-hour truce extension.
Fierce clashes with frequent explosions and gunfire continued Friday in Khartoum’s upscale neighbourhood of Kafouri, where the military’s warplanes bombed its rivals, the Rapid Support Forces, residents said. Clashes were also reported around the military’s headquarters, the Republican Palace and the area close to the Khartoum international airport. All these areas have been flashpoints since the war between the military and the RSF erupted on April 15. Explosions also rang out across the river in Omdurman.
Doctors in the Sudanese capital said the RSF has been abducting medical personnel to treat its wounded fighters — a sign the paramilitary was struggling to get medical support.
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 RSF from Khartoum streets since the start of the fighting.
At least 512 people, including civilians and combatants, have been killed since April 15, with another 4,200 wounded, according to the Sudanese Health Ministry. The Doctors’ Syndicate, which tracks civilian casualties, has recorded at least 387 civilians killed and 1,928 wounded.