Sudan War: Death toll exceeds 180 with generals battle across Sudan

Khartoum, Sudan — As explosions and gunfire rang out outside, Sudanese in the capital Khartoum and other cities crowded into their homes for a third day on Monday, as the army and a powerful rival power fought in the streets for control of the country.

UN envoy Volker Perthes said more than 180 people have been killed and more than 1,800 wounded since the fighting broke out. Both sides use tanks, artillery and other heavy weapons in densely populated areas. Fighter planes circled overhead and anti-aircraft fire lit up the sky as darkness fell.

The death toll could be much higher because there are many dead bodies in the streets around central Khartoum that no one can reach due to the clashes. There was no official information on the number of civilians or combatants killed. The Doctors Syndicate had previously estimated the number of civilian deaths at 97.

The sudden explosion of violence over the weekend between the country’s two top generals, each backing tens of thousands of fighters, has left millions of people confined to their homes or wherever they can find shelter, with supplies running low in many areas. Top diplomats on four continents scrambled to broker a truce, with the UN Security Council appointed to discuss the crisis.

“Shooting and shelling is everywhere,” said Awadi Mahmoud Koko, president of the union of thousands of tea sellers and other food workers, from her home in the southern district of Khartoum.

On Sunday, she said, a shell hit a neighbor’s home, killing at least three people. “We couldn’t take them to the hospital or bury them.”

In central Khartoum, continuous gunfire erupted and white smoke billowed near the army’s headquarters, a major battlefront. Nearby, at least 88 students and staff have been trapped in the library of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Khartoum since the fighting began, one student said in a video posted online on Monday. He said that one student was killed during clashes outside and another was wounded. They had no 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 its neighboring city of Omdurman across the Nile River were unprecedented. The unrest comes just days before Sudanese celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the end-of-Ramadan holiday, the Islamic month of fasting.

The struggle for power is between Major General Abdel Fattah Burhan, commander of the armed forces, and Major General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commander of the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group. The former allies jointly staged a military coup in October 2021 that derailed Sudan’s transition to democracy. The violence now threatens to plunge the country into broader civil strife just as Sudanese have been trying to revive the drive for democratic civilian government after decades of military rule.

The United States, the United Nations and others called for a truce. Egypt, which backs Sudan’s military, and Saudi Arabia and the UAE – which have forged close ties with the RSF in recent years as it sent thousands of fighters to support their war in Yemen – have also called on both sides to step down.

But both generals have so far gone too deep, demanding the surrender of the other and ruling out negotiations.

Dagalo, whose forces emerged from the notorious Janjaweed militias in Sudan’s Darfur region, portrayed himself in a Twitter statement on Monday as a defender of democracy and called Burhan an aggressor and “radical Islamist”. The two generals have a long history of human rights abuses and have cracked down on pro-democracy activists.

Fierce battles erupted in multiple parts of the capital and Omdurman, with both sides bringing in tens of thousands of troops, stationing them in almost every neighborhood. At least six hospitals in Khartoum have closed because of damage from fighting, close clashes, or because they ran out of fuel, said Attia Abdullah Attia, secretary of the Sudan Doctors Syndicate.

Hadia Saeed, a housewife, said she and her three children were sheltering in one room on the ground floor of their home for fear of shelling as gunfire broke out in the Bahri district of northern Khartoum. She said they had food for a few more days, but “after that we don’t know what to do”.

Residents said that fierce battles with artillery and other heavy weapons broke out on Monday afternoon in the Jabra neighborhood, southwest of Khartoum. Asmaa Eltom, a doctor who lives in the area, said people are trapped and screaming inside their homes.

Fighting was particularly fierce around each side’s main bases, located amid civilian areas, and at strategic government buildings.

On Monday, the army claimed to have secured the main television building in Omdurman, repelling RSF fighters who had been trying to seize the building for several days. Sudan State Television resumed broadcasting.

The army made a major gain on Sunday when the Rapid Support Forces said it had abandoned its barracks and main base in Omdurman, which the armed forces had bombed with air strikes. Online videos on Monday purportedly show the bodies of dozens of men said to be RSF fighters at the base, strewn over beds, the floor of a clinic and outside in a yard. The authenticity of the videos could not be independently verified.

The army and the RSF were also fighting in most of the major centers across the country, including the western region of Darfur and parts of the north and east, on the borders with Egypt and Ethiopia. Fighting broke out on Monday over a strategic air base in Marawi, about 350 kilometers (215 miles) northwest of the capital, with both sides claiming control of the facility.

Just four years ago, Sudan inspired hope after a popular uprising that helped topple longtime autocratic leader Omar al-Bashir.

But the turmoil since then, especially the 2021 coup, has frustrated the democracy campaign and devastated the economy. A third of the population – about 16 million people – now depends on humanitarian assistance in the resource-rich country, the third largest in Africa.

Save the Children, an international charity, said it had temporarily suspended most of its operations across Sudan. It said thieves raided its offices in Darfur, stealing medical supplies, laptops, vehicles and a refrigerator. The World Food Program suspended operations over the weekend after three staff members were killed in Darfur, and the International Rescue Committee halted most of its operations.

With the United States, the European Union, and African and Arab countries calling for an end to the fighting, the UN Security Council will discuss developments in Sudan later on Monday. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was consulting with the Arab League, African Union and regional leaders, urging anyone with influence to press for peace.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said that Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry discussed the violence in a separate phone call with his Saudi and French counterparts.

At a meeting of the Group of Seven rich nations in Japan on Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Sudanese “want the army back to the barracks. They want democracy. They want a civilian-led government, Sudan needs to get back on this track.”

Under international pressure, Al-Burhan and Daglo recently agreed to a framework agreement with political parties and pro-democracy groups.

However, the deal was vague on key points of contention, including how the RSF would be integrated into the armed forces and who would have ultimate control. Signing the deal was repeatedly delayed as tensions rose between the generals.

___ Magdy reported from Cairo.