Fighting continued in Sudan hours after an internationally brokered truce was supposed to have come into effect, as forces loyal to dueling generals battled for key locations in the capital and accused each other of violating the cease-fire.
At least 185 people have been killed and more than 1,800 injured in more than four days of fighting that has pitted 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. Their power struggle has derailed a shift to civilian rule and raised fears of a wider conflict.
Hopes of relief were raised on Tuesday when a 24-hour ceasefire was agreed after US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, separately telephoned Hemedti and Burhan to express “grave concern” about civilian deaths and to urge them to agree to a ceasefire.
However, hours after the ceasefire had come into effect fighting was ongoing. Khartoum residents said they still heard gunfire and explosions in different parts of the capital, particularly around the military’s headquarters and the Republican Palace.
“The fighting remains under way,” Atiya Abdulla Atiya of the Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate told The Associated Press. “We are hearing constant gunfire.”
It comes as a major aid organisation says it is nearly impossible to provide humanitarian services in the Sudanese capital.
“The truth is that at the moment it is almost impossible to provide any humanitarian services in and around Khartoum,” said Farid Aiywar, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies’ head of delegation for Sudan. “There are calls from various organisations and people trapped asking for evacuation.”
Days of street battles have deprived much of Khartoum of basic services, cutting off supplies of food and medicine and trapping thousands of students in schools and colleges. The death toll is thought to be considerably higher than the 185 estimated by the UN, with reports of many bodies lying in the streets.
Gunfire echoed across the capital on Tuesday accompanied by the almost continuous sound of warplanes and explosions. Residents of the neighbouring cities of Omdurman and Bahri also reported airstrikes that shook buildings, and anti-aircraft fire. Witnesses described heavy fighting in other parts of Sudan.
Hospitals have been caught in the crossfire as warring factions fight for control of the capital.
At least three people have been killed and two injured in attacks on health facilities and ambulances, said the World Health Organization, adding that 16 hospitals, including nine in Khartoum, had stopped functioning due to the violence, while 16 others were on the verge of closing due to overstretched staff and a lack of medical supplies.
“There is grave concern following reports of military strikes against health facilities, hijacking of ambulances while patients and paramedics are in them, looting of health facilities, and occupation of health facilities by military forces.
Attacks on healthcare facilities are a flagrant violation of international law and the right to health and must be stopped immediately,” the WHO said.
At Omdurman teaching hospital, medical staff appeared to be overwhelmed by the number of injured civilians and soldiers seeking treatment on Tuesday. Aiywar said the health system was close to collapse.
The main international airport and all Sudanese airspace has been shut, so no supplies can come in by air.
Analysts said only pressure from “a coalition of actors” would have a chance of ending the fighting. Ahmed Soliman, a regional expert at Chatham House in London, said: “The US doesn’t have the influence to do it alone but can possibly corral different actors … There needs to be a ceasefire and then a broad coalition to push to make it permanent but I don’t think that’s going to happen soon.”
The US stepped up its involvement after its diplomats were shot at by fighters associated with the RSF on Monday. Blinken called the attack on a convoy “reckless” and “irresponsible”.
Almost all international humanitarian operations have been suspended amid attacks on facilities run by the UN and others. Warehouses and offices have been looted or caught in the crossfire, and in Khartoum aid workers were not able to access stores to deliver vital medical supplies to hospitals.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the international humanitarian medical organisation, received 136 wounded patients at the hospital it supports in El Fasher, North Darfur, in a 48-hour period. Eleven people later died of their injuries.
Cyrus Paye, an MSF project coordinator in El Fasher, said most of the wounded people were civilians caught in the crossfire, including many children often with extremely serious injuries. “The hospital [here] is rapidly running out of medical supplies to treat survivors … and fuel supplies for the hospital generator are also running low … Without these vital supplies, there will be further loss of life,” he said.
In Khartoum, fighters were turning back ambulances attempting to retrieve bodies from the streets or transport injured people to hospital, MSF said.
Many parts of Khartoum were without power for a fourth day, disrupting water supplies and communications.
The fighting has exacerbated an acute economic crisis, with the cost of staple foods such as flour, rice and cooking oil rising sharply. “Since yesterday prices of goods in the market here have been increasing and there are fears of shortages,” said one aid worker based in Al-Qadarif, 250 miles (400km) south-east of Khartoum. “Banks are closed and with the breakdown of law and order, there is concern that criminality will increase.”
