Fighting between rival government factions intensified across much of Sudan on Monday morning as diplomatic efforts to end the conflict began to gather momentum.
At least 97 people have been killed and hundreds wounded as clashes have spread since Saturday, when violence erupted between army units loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of Sudan’s transitional governing Sovereign Council, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, who is deputy head of the council.
In Khartoum, fighting has centered on key sites such as the international airport, presidential palace and the army headquarters, where Burhan is thought to be based. Military jets flew low over the capital at first light, after a night of repeated bouts of firing and shelling.
Eyewitnesses told Reuters the army was renewing airstrikes on RSF bases in Omdurman, Khartoum’s sister city across the Nile. Dozens of bodies have been seen by witnesses in one central neighbourhood of the capital, while hundreds of students remain trapped by the fighting in schools.
There were also reports of clashes at Merowe, 300km north of Khartoum, and in many parts of Darfur state. Officials have also reported fighting in the eastern region, including the provinces of Kassala and al-Qadarif on the borders with Ethiopia and Eritrea.
The more heavily armed regular military loyal to Burhan appeared to have the upper hand in the fighting over the weekend, but both sides are making claims and counter-claims that are impossible to verify.
Sudan state television cut its transmission on Sunday afternoon, a move that employees said was aimed at preventing the broadcast of propaganda by a paramilitary force that was battling the army for control of the capital.
The conflict threatens to plunge one of Africa’s biggest and most strategically important nations into chaos. Analysts say only pressure from “heavyweight” intermediaries would have a chance of ending the fighting.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has called for an immediate ceasefire and a return to talks to put Sudan back on track to a civilian-led government.
Speaking at the G7 foreign ministers’ summit in Japan, Blinken said: “There is a shared deep concern about … the violence that is going on in Sudan, the threat that that poses to civilians, that it poses to the Sudanese nation and potentially poses even to the region.
“There’s also a strongly held view across all of our partners on the need for an immediate ceasefire and a return to talks. Talks that were very promising in putting Sudan on a path to a full transition to civilian-led government.
“People in Sudan want the military back in the barracks, they want democracy, they want a civilian-led government. Sudan needs to return to that path.”
Standing alongside his US counterpart, the UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said a return to negotiations was the “ultimate desired outcome” in Sudan.
The African Union’s top council called on Sunday for an immediate ceasefire “without conditions.” It also asked the AU Commission chair, Moussa Faki Mahamat, to “immediately travel to Sudan to engage the parties towards a ceasefire.”
Arab states with stakes in Sudan – Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – made similar appeals. The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Farhan bin Faisal, spoke by phone with Sudan’s rival generals and urged them to stop “all kinds of military escalation,” Saudi state TV reported.
However, neither of the factions fighting for control of Sudan and its precious resources has shown any willingness to compromise.
Burhan’s followers have called for dismantling the RSF, which it labeled a “rebellious militia”, while Dagalo told the satellite news network Al Arabiya that he had ruled out negotiation and called on Burhan to surrender.
The roots of the current conflict lie in the divide-and-rule strategy pursued by the veteran Islamist autocrat Omar al-Bashir, who took power in 1989. The RSF were drawn from the feared Janjaweed militia accused of genocide in Darfur and acted as a counterweight to the regular army, whose loyalty Bashir doubted.
But though the two forces joined to oust Bashir in 2019 after months of mass popular protests, relations between them remained tense. Many analysts and diplomats in Khartoum predicted a violent contest after a military coup in October 2021 that derailed a gradual transition to civilian rule.
Sudan is suffering a deep economic crisis, with soaring inflation and massive unemployment.
Khalid Omar, a spokesperson for the pro-democracy block that negotiated with the generals in recent months, warned that the conflict could lead to war and the country’s collapse.
In a series of tweets on Sunday, Omar called on pro-democracy groups to set aside their disputes to find a way to end the crisis “immediately”.
On Sunday, the World Food Program said it had temporarily suspended operations in Sudan after three agency employees were killed in clashes the previous day and an aircraft used by the WFP was damaged.
