Daily Times

Heavy explosions and gunfire rocked Sudan’s capital, Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman early Friday, residents said, despite the extension of a fragile truce between the county’s two top generals whose power struggle has killed hundreds. After two weeks of fighting that has turned the capital into a war zone and thrown Sudan into turmoil, a wide-ranging group of international mediators – including African and Arab nations, the UN and the United States – were intensifying their pressure on the rival generals to enter talks on resolving the crisis.

So far, however, they have managed to achieve only a series of fragile temporary cease-fires that failed to stop clashes but created enough of a lull for tens of thousands of Sudanese to flee to safer areas and for foreign nations to evacuate thousands of their citizens by land, air and sea. In a sign of the persistent chaos, Turkey said one of its evacuation planes was hit by gunfire outside Khartoum with no casualties on Friday, hours after both sides accepted a 72-hour truce extension, apparently to allow foreign governments complete the evacuation of their citizens. Fierce clashes with frequent explosions and gunfire continued Friday in Khartoum’s upscale neighborhood of Kafouri, where the military earlier used warplanes to bomb its rivals, the Rapid Support Forces, residents said. Clashes were also reported around the military’s headquarters, the Republican Palace and the area close to the Khartoum international airport. All these areas have been flashpoints since the war between the military and the RSF erupted on April 15.

In Omdurman, across the Nile from Khartoum, a protest group reported “constant explosions” in the district of Karari early Friday. The Turkish Defense Ministry said “light weapons were fired” at a C-130 aircraft heading to Wadi Sayidna airbase on Khartoum’s northern outskirts to evacuate Turkish civilians. The plane landed safely, the ministry said in a tweet, and no personnel were injured. The Sudanese military blamed the RSF and posted images on its Facebook page, purportedly showing a Turkish aircraft at an airfield, with marks of gunshots on its body and wing. The RSF denied firing on the plane, saying the military controls the area where the airbase is located.

Over the past 14 days of pummeling each other, the military led by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and the RSF led by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, have each failed to deal a decisive blow to the other in their struggle for control of Africa’s third largest nation. Still, world powers have struggled to get them to silence the weapons even for nominal truces. A bloc of East Africa nations has put forward a initiative for the two sides to hold talks, and a gamut of mediators are promoting the plan, including the African Union, the US, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the U.N. The military on Thursday expressed its openness to the talks but there has been no word from the RSF. A special envoy from Burhan is to meet in Cairo on Saturday with the foreign minister of Egypt, which has close ties with the Sudanese military, according to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.

Meanwhile, the rivals’ battles in the streets with artillery barrages, airstrikes and gunbattles have wreaked misery on millions of Sudanese caught between them. Many fled Khartoum to the northern borders with Egypt, or to the city of Port Sudan on the Red Sea. Those who remain in the capital have been living in rapidly deteriorating conditions, mostly trapped inside their homes for days. Food, water and other services have become scarce, and electricity is cut off across much of Khartoum and other cities. Fighters roam the streets in the capital and other cities, looting and destroying homes, shops, businesses and open-air markets.