Air raids and heavy fire in Khartoum, thousands evacuated from Sudan: fierce and deadly fighting between the army and paramilitaries entered its third week on Saturday (April 29th), in violation of a new truce.

The country has been plunged into chaos since the outbreak on April 15 of a bloody power struggle between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhane and his number two, Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, known as "Hemedti", at the head of the feared Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

See also Who are the RSF, these paramilitaries opposed to the army in Sudan?

The fighting left at least 512 people dead and 4,193 wounded, according to official statistics. Tens of thousands of Sudanese have fled to neighbouring states, including Egypt, Ethiopia, Chad and South Sudan, while foreign countries are carrying out mass evacuations of their nationals.

'The country is collapsing'

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres lamented the continuing fighting as "the country collapses," he told Saudi news channel Al-Arabiya.

Each side accuses the other of violating the extended three-day truce under international mediation. It expires Sunday at midnight (22 GMT).

Civilians are trying to flee or survive barricaded, amid widespread shortages, including of electricity, water and food. "We woke up once again to the sound of fighter jets and anti-aircraft weapons," a resident in southern Khartoum told AFP. Another witness said fighting had been going on since dawn, particularly around the headquarters of the state television station in Omdurman, a northern suburb of Khartoum.

About 70 percent of hospitals in areas near the fighting are out of service and many have been bombed, according to the doctors' union.

Evacuations continue

On Friday, the two warring generals scarred each other through the media. On the American Arabic-language television channel Al-Hurra, General al-Burhane described the RSF as a "militia seeking to destroy Sudan" and claimed that "mercenaries" were arriving from Chad, the Central African Republic and Niger. General Daglo spoke on the BBC of his rival as a "traitor" who was "not trustworthy".

The two generals had joined forces during the 2021 putsch to oust civilians with whom they had shared power since the fall of dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019. But differences then emerged and the conflict between the two intensified when they failed to agree on the integration of the RSF into the regular army, before turning into an armed struggle on April 15.

" READ ALSO Behind the violence in Sudan, an "existential" conflict between two military leaders

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, some 75,000 people have been displaced by the fighting, which has been particularly violent in the volatile Darfur region.

And evacuations continue. On Saturday, a boat carrying about 1,900 evacuees of different nationalities arrived in Jeddah, western Saudi Arabia. Some 4,879 nationals from Saudi Arabia and 96 other countries have been evacuated via Saudi Arabia, according to authorities in the wealthy Gulf state.

Merhdad Malekzadh, who grew up in Sudan, was among the first Iranians evacuated on Saturday. In Jeddah, he described daily bombings and explosions in Khartoum to AFP. "We never imagined that the situation would become so tense."

Looting, destruction and arson in Western Darfur

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that millions more people could face hunger in one of the world's poorest countries, where a third of the 45 million people were already in need of food aid before the war.

Looting, destruction and burning are increasing in Western Darfur, including in camps for displaced people, reports Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The NGO had to "stop almost all (its) activities" in this region because of the violence, regrets its deputy head in Sudan, Sylvain Perron, who says he is "extremely worried".

The Darfur region remains marked by a bloody conflict that began in 2003 between the regime of dictator Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted in 2019, and ethnic minority insurgents. The conflict has left an estimated 300,000 dead and nearly 2.5 million displaced, according to the UN.

With AFP

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