Witnesses report shooting in north, west and centre of city, including during call for Eid prayers.
New efforts to halt fighting in Sudan failed on Friday, as residents of the capital, Khartoum, reported intense shelling and gunfights between soldiers and gunmen from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Witnesses said there was shooting in the north, west and centre of the city, including during the call for special early-morning Eid prayers.
Continue reading...The most sought-after addresses in Sudan’s capital city are now so dangerous that residents cannot wait to flee
On one street is a small cafe where diplomats, successful businesspeople and visiting dignitaries enjoyed smoothies and burgers under umbrellas set against the blistering sun. On another is a showroom for custom-designed kitchens imported from Europe, a once well stocked pharmacy and a fast-food joint. Down dusty potholed roads, there are villas behind high walls and apartment blocks where chandeliers hang above shining marble stairways.
These central Khartoum neighbourhoods, once the most sought-after addresses in Sudan’s capital city, are now so dangerous that residents cannot wait to flee. For almost a week, they have been the stage for a brutal power struggle, shattered by shelling, grenades and automatic rifle fire that trapped tens of thousands in their homes.
Continue reading...The US is preparing to send a large number of additional troops to its base in Djibouti if factional violence continues, officials say
The US is preparing to send a large number of additional troops to its base in Djibouti in case of an eventual evacuation from Sudan, US officials said on Thursday, as fresh gunfire erupted and the latest of several ceasefires broke down.
Planning for the deployments to Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti got under way in earnest on Monday after a US embassy convoy was attacked in Khartoum.
Continue reading...Military ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo of RSF both rule out truce
Up to 20,000 people have fled the escalating violence in Sudan to seek safety in neighbouring Chad, many of whom lack basic needs such as food, water and shelter, the United Nations has said.
The UN’s refugee agency said the majority of those arriving were women and children, who were currently sheltering out in the open, some of whom had been caught up in the fighting that has raged around the country for six days.
Continue reading...Fighting in Sudan is continuing despite an internationally brokered truce. At the heart of the conflict is a power struggle between two powerful generals in a country permanently in the grip of its military. Nesrine Malik reports
When Omar al-Bashir was forced from Sudan’s presidency in 2019 after 30 years of repression it felt to many like a time for celebration and a fresh start for the country. Toppled by the military, a tyrant accused of genocide and war crimes was finally out of power.
But the vacuum he left behind was quickly filled, not by one man but two. Many feared that Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto leader and army chief, and Lt Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the vice-president who controls the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and is known as Hemedti, would soon clash. That fear became reality last weekend.
Continue reading...Nine employees stuck for five days say they are ‘terrified’ as they wait to be evacuated while fighting continues in Sudan
Nine employees of the British Council in Khartoum have been stranded in their offices for five days amid heavy gunfire and explosions, as fighting in the streets of the Sudanese capital continues between the army and paramilitary forces.
One of the British Council staff is a British-Ugandan dual citizen; the rest are Sudanese. They include a security guard, an English language teacher, a driver and administrators.
Continue reading...Germany and Japan reportedly planning to evacuate citizens as UN documents describe ‘nightmare scenario’
Thousands of residents have fled Khartoum as fighting continued across the city for a fifth day and many countries began preparations to evacuate their citizens from Sudan.
Attempts to resurrect a US-brokered ceasefire between the army and paramilitary forces that failed to hold on Tuesday did not reassure many inhabitants of the capital, which suffered some of the most intense clashes yet seen as rival factions battled for control of the airport, defence headquarters and other key strategic sites.
Continue reading...Sudanese campaigners describe their fears amid escalating clashes between forces loyal to the two generals, as well as their anger over warnings ignored
The Sudanese people will continue to resist military forces that usurped the transition to democratic rule, says the protester who has become known as “the Spiderman of Sudan”.
The young teacher, who became known as “Spidey” for the costume he wore to protests against the military coup in 2021, said a friend had already been killed in heavy fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which erupted on Saturday.
Continue reading...Hopes of 24-hour ceasefire to evacuate civilians and wounded after US secretary of state intervenes
Fighting continued in Sudan hours after an internationally brokered truce was supposed to have come into effect, as forces loyal to dueling generals battled for key locations in the capital and accused each other of violating the cease-fire.
At least 185 people have been killed and more than 1,800 injured in more than four days of fighting that has pitted army units loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of Sudan’s transitional governing sovereign council, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, who is deputy head of the council. Their power struggle has derailed a shift to civilian rule and raised fears of a wider conflict.
Continue reading...Secretary of state condemns apparent attack by fighters linked to paramilitary RSF after days of deadly clashes
A US diplomatic convoy came under fire in Sudan in an apparent attack by fighters associated with Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said, in an incident he described as “reckless” and “irresponsible”.
The incident on Monday prompted a direct warning from Blinken, who separately telephoned the RSF leader Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, and Sudan’s army chief, Gen Abdel Fatah al-Burhan, to tell them any danger posed to American diplomats was unacceptable.
Continue reading...Commonly known as Hemedti, the general of the Rapid Support Forces rose through ranks of Janjaweed in 2003-05 war
The story has it that Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo – known universally as Hemedti or “little Mohammed” – first became a fighter in the Sudanese Arab Janjaweed militia in Darfur after an armed attack killed dozens of members of his family.
A secondary school dropout turned camel trader, the general and deputy head of state whose Rapid Support Forces [RSF] are now battling the Sudanese army forces loyal to army chief Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, is also widely feared.
Continue reading...Neither side shows any willingness to heed appeals from US, UK, African Union and Arab states as death toll nears 200
Rival government factions in Sudan have rejected calls for a ceasefire and intensified their battle for control of the vast and strategically important country as diplomatic efforts to end the conflict gather momentum.
At least 185 people have been killed and more than 1,800 injured, UN envoy Volker Perthes said as clashes have spread since Saturday, when violence erupted between army units loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of Sudan’s transitional governing Sovereign Council, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, who is deputy head of the council.
Continue reading...WHO warns some hospitals in Khartoum short of blood and other critical supplies to treat wounded and clashes enter third day
At least 97 people have been killed and hundreds wounded as clashes spread across Sudan, and the World Health Organization (WHO) said some hospitals were running out of critical supplies to treat the injured.
Fighting erupted on Saturday between army units loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of Sudan’s transitional governing Sovereign Council, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, who is deputy head of the council.
Continue reading...Violence between military factions that has left at least 56 dead in the capital spreads to other parts of country
Civilians in Sudan have been subjected to a second day of heavy fighting, waking up in the capital, Khartoum, on Sunday to the sound of gunfire and military jets over the city despite a four-hour UN-proposed humanitarian ceasefire between the two main factions of the ruling military regime.
The violence that broke out on Saturday between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and left at least 56 civilians in the capital dead spread to other parts of the country, with the UN’s World Food Programme suspending operations in the country after three of its employees were killed in clashes in Darfur. Fighting was also reported in the eastern border state of Kassala.
Continue reading...Three of agency’s workers killed amid two days of violent clashes between army and paramilitaries
Violence has been reported across Sudan for a second day as fighting continued in the capital and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said it was temporarily halting all operations in the country after the deaths of three employees in the Darfur region.
It followed a day of deadly battles between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that left at least 56 people dead and nearly 600 wounded in Khartoum. Sudan’s army launched airstrikes on a rival paramilitary force’s base near the capital in an effort to reassert control over the chaotic country.
Continue reading...Army rejects assertions by RSF that they have seized palace and airports in Khartoum
Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces says it has gained control of Khartoum international airport, Merowe airport, al-Obeid airport and the presidential palace, after an attack on its military base in south Khartoum at about 9am local time today.
Khartoum airport has shut down, with clips circulated on social media showing the RSF storming the airport.
Continue reading...Paramilitary group reports seizing control of presidential palace, army chief’s home and Khartoum airport
• Fighting in Sudan’s capital – latest updates
Sudan was plunged into a long-feared violent crisis on Saturday as a bitter struggle for power appeared to break out between the two main factions of the ruling military regime.
At least 25 people were reported to have been killed in clashes in the vast and strategic east African country during heavy fighting between the Sudanese armed forces and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Force (RSF), according to the Sudan Doctor’s Committee, a local NGO.
Continue reading...The verdict, the first of its kind in almost a decade, has shocked many who fear country is sliding back into state extremism
Three Sudanese men have been sentenced to hand amputation for stealing, the first time in almost a decade that such a punishment has been handed down in the country’s courts.
The three men in their 20s were convicted of stealing gas cylinders in Omdurman, Sudan’s most populous city, which sits across the Nile River from the capital, Khartoum.
Continue reading...On a continent that has long attracted western expeditions, a wave of young people are now exploring sites
A late morning in Khartoum. Inside a low, dusty building in the centre of the Sudanese capital, there are crates of artefacts, a 7ft replica of a 2,000-year-old stone statue of a Nubian god, and students rushing through the corridors. Outside is noisy traffic, blinding sunlight and both branches of the Nile.
Heading down one staircase are Sabrine Jamal, Nadia Musa, Athar Bela and Sabrine al-Sadiq, all studying archaeology at Khartoum University. Not one of them is older than 24 and they see themselves as pioneers, breaking new ground on a continent that has long attracted western expeditions, specialists and adventurers but whose own archaeologists have received less attention overseas.
Continue reading...Floods caused by warming temperatures and a lack of preventive care are driving the spread of the disease in a country racked with political and economic upheaval
More than 1,400 people in Sudan have been diagnosed with dengue fever this year in the worst outbreak in the country for more than a decade.
Half of the country’s 18 states have registered cases and nine deaths recorded, including one child, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) who suspect the true number to be far higher.
Continue reading...