Sudan is plunging into bloody chaos as clashes between the army and a powerful rival force continue for a third consecutive day in the capital, Khartoum, and other cities across the country. At least 97 civilians have lost their lives in the crossfire of street fighting, aerial bombings, and attacks on hospitals. Several humanitarian groups have suspended their vital operations amidst the growing number of Sudanese people depending on their assistance.
The sudden explosion of violence over the weekend between the two highest-ranking generals in Sudan, each backed by thousands of well-armed fighters, has left millions of people trapped in their homes – or wherever they could find shelter – in the capital and its adjacent city, Omdurman. For many, supplies are running out, and looting has been reported.
«Gunfire and bombings are everywhere,» said Awadeya Mahmoud Koko, head of a union representing thousands of tea sellers and other food workers, from her home in a southern district of Khartoum. She recounted that a projectile hit her neighbor’s house on Sunday, killing at least three people. «We couldn’t take them to a hospital or bury them.»
In central Khartoum, sustained gunfire was heard, and white smoke rose near the main army headquarters, one of the main battlefronts. Nearby, at least 88 students and staff are trapped in the library of the School of Engineering at the University of Khartoum since the start of the clashes, as a student said in a video posted online on Monday. One student died in the fighting outside the building, and another was critically injured, he noted. The group has no food or water, and the video showed a room filled with people sleeping on the floor.
Even in a country with a long history of civil conflicts, scenes of tank battles, machine guns, artillery, and warplanes in the densely populated capital are unprecedented. These clashes threaten to plunge Sudan into an even wider civil conflict at a time when Sudanese people were trying to revive their struggle for a democratic and civilian government after decades of military rule. The clashes are part of a power struggle between General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, commander of the armed forces, and General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group. Both generals were allies who jointly orchestrated a military coup in October 2021 that foiled Sudan’s transition to democracy.
Both men have dug in, saying they will not negotiate a ceasefire and hurling verbal attacks demanding each other’s surrender.