Khartoum: As fighting between the regular army and paramilitaries continued for a third day and the death toll approached 100, explosions shook the capital city of Sudan, Khartoum, on Monday.
After weeks of power struggles between Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who is in charge of the potent paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), violence broke out on Saturday.
An extensive international outcry calling for an immediate halt to hostilities and dialogue was sparked by the raging battles.
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The number of civilian deaths in clashes since they started on Saturday has reached 97, the doctors' union said in a statement early on Monday. It was noted that this number does not include all fatalities because many victims were unable to reach hospitals due to transportation issues.
It claimed that the clashes had injured hundreds of civilians.According to AFP journalists, clashes continued as loud gunfire and deafening explosions reverberated throughout Khartoum's streets on Monday morning.
Witnesses described plumes of thick black smoke rising from damaged buildings, along with a lingering odour of gunpowder.
An important requirement for a final agreement intended to end the crisis since the military coup Burhan and Daglo masterminded in 2021, the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army, led to the outbreak of fighting.
Following the removal of president Omar Al-Bashir in 2019, the coup already stalled Sudan's transition to civilian rule and exacerbated the country's spiralling economic crisis.
Fearing a protracted conflict that could worsen the country's chaos and dash hopes for a return to civilian rule, the fighting forced Sudanese to take refuge in their homes. The two sides have traded accusations regarding who started the fighting ever since Saturday.
Each has asserted dominance by claiming control over strategic locations, such as the airport and the presidential palace, but none of their assertions have been independently corroborated.
Fighting also broke out in the eastern border state of Kassala and in the western Darfur region of the Sudan. The World Food Programme shut down all of its operations in the impoverished nation after clashes on Saturday claimed the lives of three of its employees.
Because it is too dangerous to transport casualties to hospitals on the streets, medical professionals have pleaded for safe ambulance lanes and a cease-fire so that they can treat the victims.
The Janjaweed militia, which his government had unleashed against non-Arab ethnic minorities in Darfur ten years prior and which was accused of committing war crimes, gave birth to the RSF, which Bashir established in 2013.
The two generals' recent acts of violence have highlighted the long-standing differences between the RSF and the regular army. The two generals didn't seem to be in the mood for negotiations despite widespread calls for a cease-fire.
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Burhan, who ascended the ranks during the now-incarcerated Bashir's three-decade rule, has claimed that the coup was "necessary" to include more factions in politics.
Daglo later referred to the coup as a "mistake" that failed to usher in change and re-energized Bashir's regime, which the army overthrew in 2019 after widespread protests.
