Sudan: Country collapsing as war enters third week

As fighting between Sudan's army and paramilitaries entered a third week, the UN chief warned that the country was disintegrating, drawing heavy fire over Khartoum from warplanes on bombing raids.

Since fighting broke out on April 15 between the forces of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who is in charge of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), more than 500 people have died.

While the number of dead civilians keeps rising and chaos and lawlessness engulf Khartoum, a city of five million people where many have been confined to their homes without food, water, or electricity, they have repeatedly agreed to truces. However, none of them have been able to hold.

To escape the fighting, tens of thousands of people have been uprooted from their homes in Sudan or have made difficult journeys to Chad, Egypt, South Sudan, or Ethiopia.

“There is no right to go on fighting for power when the country is falling apart,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television.

The most recent three-day truce, which will end at 12 a.m. (2200 GMT) on Sunday, was reached on Thursday after mediation by the United States, Saudi Arabia, the African Union, and the United Nations under the leadership of those countries.

“We woke up once again to the sound of fighter jets and anti-aircraft weapons blasting all over our neighbourhood,” a witness in southern Khartoum said.

Another said that fighting had persisted since early in the day, particularly near the Omdurman, the capital's twin city, state broadcaster's offices.

machine gun fire in the north of Khartoum, while shooting could be heard in Burri to the east of the city, across the Blue Nile.

The vicinity of the airport in Khartoum was covered with smoke.