Street battles and gunfire threaten what remains of a fragile ceasefire in Sudan, now hanging by a thread despite a three-day extension of the truce agreement, as a Turkish evacuation plane was shot at as it attempted to land.
The Sudanese Armed Forces, loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and its rival, the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, traded blame for the incident at the Wadi Seidna airbase, 12.5 miles (20km) north of Khartoum on the western bank of the Nile
The RSF also repeatedly blamed the SAF for violating the ceasefire agreement, claiming they breached the truce with airstrikes and artillery fire. The head of the RSF, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, told the BBC he would not negotiate until hostilities had ceased, saying “We don’t want to destroy Sudan.”
Turkey’s defence ministry confirmed the incident without attributing blame. “Light weapons fired on our C-130 evacuation plane,” it said, adding that the plane had landed safely. “Although there are no injuries to our personnel, necessary checks will be carried out on the aircraft.”
At least 512 people have been killed and almost 4,200 wounded, according to the UN, though the real toll is thought to be much higher. Fighting has overtaken the capital, Khartoum, and much of its sister city, Omdurman, and there have also been increasing reports of violence in long-troubled Darfur.
At least 96 people have died in Darfur since Monday in intercommunal violence rekindled by the conflict, according to a UN human rights office spokesperson. Releases and escapes from at least eight jails, including five in Khartoum and two in Darfur, were adding to the chaos, the spokesperson said. “We are very worried about the prospect of further violence amid a generalised climate of impunity.”
The Darfur Bar Association, a civil society group, said fighters were “launching rockets at houses” in the West Darfur state capital, El Geneina. It also reported firing from “rifles, machine guns and anti-aircraft weapons”.
Analysts have been warning for days that the conflict between the army and RSF could spark multiple other militias to exploit the chaos and settle old scores.
Alan Boswell, the Horn of Africa director for International Crisis Group, said: “Both parties are in a dogfight in the capital. It’s unclear who has the upper hand, neither party trusts one another and have declared they are trying to kill each other. These are the major difficulties in getting the ceasefire to hold in this situation.”
Clouds of thick smoke rose above two areas of Bahri, northern Khartoum, on Friday as locals reported hearing sounds of gunfire. The Sudanese army has used airstrikes with jets or drones to strike RSF forces that have fanned out through residential neighbourhoods in Sudan’s sprawling capital. Civilians have been left to shelter in their homes, often without easy access to food, water, fuel or electricity.
“The situation this morning is very scary. We hear the sounds of planes and explosions. We don’t know when this hell will end,” Mahasin al-Awad, a Bahri resident, told Reuters. “We’re in a constant state of fear for ourselves and our children.”
Thousands of Sudanese and foreign nationals have fled the capital for Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast or to the borders with neighbouring countries.
The International Organisation for Migration said an estimated 20,000 people, primarily Chadian and Sudanese nationals, had crossed Sudan’s border into Chad since fighting began almost two weeks ago. The UN refugee agency estimated that up to 100,000 people may seek refuge in Chad in the coming weeks from Sudan, as well as a further 170,000 people fleeing to South Sudan.
Charlotte Hallqvist of the UN refugee agency, currently in the town of Renk near the Joda border crossing into South Sudan, said: “Many fled to Sudan during the civil war, obtained refugee status and are now fleeing back. Obviously this is tragic, I spoke to so many who thought they would never have to flee again.”
The non-governmental organisation Care says most of those arriving in the Sudan-Chad border region are women and children. More than 42,000 people are sheltering in the open or in huts carrying just a few essential belongings or in some cases nothing at all due to the stress of their flight from their homes.
Aid groups in Chad also highlighted concerns that the influx of refugees had come as they were trying to prepare for the lean season between harvests, increasing food insecurity for millions, as well as heavy rains that could block vital food aid to thousands of stranded refugees.
“It’s a perfect storm,” said Pierre Honnorat, who leads the World Food Programme in Chad. “The lean season coming in June. And the rainy season that will cut off all those regions.”
According to the IOM, at least 1,000 people have crossed into Ethiopia each day this week, and more are expected to arrive. Most are Turkish and Ethiopian nationals, as well as groups of Sudanese and Somali citizens. Almost 15% of arrivals in Ethiopia are minors, it says.
This increased pressure on surrounding countries has prompted regional leaders to bolster efforts to press on the warring generals to restore what remains of the fraying ceasefire.
The Ethiopian prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, said he had held phone discussions with Burhan of the SAF and Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, of the RSF, to discuss “the need to settle differences amicably and bring stability to Sudan”, adding: “The great people of Sudan deserve peace.”
The generals’ willingness to cease fighting and prepare for dialogue did not appear evident on the ground. The World Health Organization condemned what it said were increasing attacks on healthcare personnel, hospitals and ambulances across Sudan that had left at least three dead and two injured.
The WHO said 16 hospitals, including nine in Khartoum, were “reportedly non-functional due to attacks”. A further 16 hospitals in Khartoum and Darfur states were close to being non-functional due to staff fatigue and lack of supplies, it added.
