Sudan’s generals battle for 3rd day; death toll soars to 185

JACK JEFFERY and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press

KHARTOUM, Sudan — As explosions and gunfire thundered outside, Sudanese in the capital Khartoum and other cities huddled in their homes for a third day Monday, while the army and a powerful rival force battled in the streets for control of the country.

At least 185 people were killed and over 1,800 wounded since the fighting erupted, U.N. envoy Volker Perthes told reporters. The two sides are using tanks, artillery and other heavy weapons in densely populated areas. Fighter jets swooped overhead and anti-aircraft fire lit up the skies as darkness fell.

The toll could be much higher because there are many bodies in the streets in central Khartoum that no one can reach because of the clashes.

There has been no official word on how many civilians or combatants have been killed. The doctors’ syndicate earlier put the number of civilian deaths at 97.

The outbreak of violence over the weekend between the nation’s two top generals, each backed by tens of thousands of heavily armed fighters, trapped millions of people in their homes or wherever they could find shelter, with supplies running low and several hospitals forced to shut down.

Top diplomats on four continents scrambled to broker a truce, and the U.N. Security Council was set to discuss the crisis.

<p>People walk past shuttered shops Monday in Khartoum, Sudan.</p>

Marwan Ali, Associated Press

People walk past shuttered shops Monday in Khartoum, Sudan.

“Gunfire and shelling are everywhere,” Awadeya Mahmoud Koko, head of a union for thousands of tea vendors and other food workers, said from her home in a southern district of Khartoum.

She said a shell stuck a neighbor’s house Sunday, killing at least three people. “We couldn’t take them to a hospital or bury them.”

At least 88 students and staffers were trapped in the engineering college library at Khartoum University since the start of fighting, one of the students said in a video posted online Monday. One student was killed during clashes outside and another wounded, he said. They do not have food or water, he said, showing a room full of people sleeping on the floor.

Even in a country with a long history of military coups, the scenes of fighting in the capital and adjoining city Omdurman across the Nile River were unprecedented.

The power struggle pits Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, the commander of the armed forces, against Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group. The former allies jointly orchestrated an October 2021 military coup. The violence raised the specter of civil war just as Sudanese were trying to revive the drive for a democratic, civilian government after decades of military rule.

A third of the population — around 16 million people — depends on humanitarian assistance in the resource-rich nation, Africa’s third largest.

Under international pressure, Burhan and Dagalo recently agreed to a framework agreement with political parties and pro-democracy groups, but the signing was delayed as tensions rose over the integration of the RSF into the armed forces and the future chain of command.

<p>Buildings burn and military patrol Monday northeast of Khartoum International Airport, Sudan.</p>

Maxar Technologies via AP

Buildings burn and military patrol Monday northeast of Khartoum International Airport, Sudan.

The U.S., the U.N. and others called for a truce. Egypt, which backs Sudan’s military, and Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — which forged close ties to the RSF in recent years as it sent thousands of fighters to support their war in Yemen — also called for both sides to stand down.

Both generals have thus far dug in, demanding the other’s surrender and ruling out negotiations.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, tweeted that the EU ambassador to Sudan “was assaulted in his own residency” without providing further details. EU officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Dagalo, whose forces grew out of the notorious Janjaweed militias in Sudan’s Darfur region, portrayed himself as a defender of democracy and branded Burhan as the aggressor and a “radical Islamist.” Both generals have a long history of human rights abuses and crackdowns on pro-democracy activists.

Heavy gunbattles raged in multiple parts of the capital and Omdurman, where the two sides have brought in tens of thousands of troops.

Twelve hospitals in the capital area were “forcefully evacuated” and are “out of service” because of attacks or power outages, the Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate said, out of a total of about 20 hospitals. Four other hospitals outside the capital also shut down, it said late Monday.

Residents said fierce fighting raged Monday afternoon in the Gabra neighborhood southwest of Khartoum. People were trapped and screaming inside their homes, said Asmaa al-Toum, a physician living in the area.

The military on Monday claimed it secured the main television building in Omdurman, fending off the RSF after days of fighting. State-run Sudan TV resumed broadcasting.

The military and RSF were also fighting in most major centers around the country, including in the western Darfur region and parts of the north and east, and around a strategic airbase in Merowe.

Hadia Saeed said she and her three children were sheltering in one room of their home for fear of the shelling as gunfire rattled across their Bahri district in north Khartoum. They have food for a few more days, but “after that we don’t know what to do,” she said.

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