The sound of gunfire and heavy artillery continued to reverberate across the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, for a second day on Sunday as doctors said at least 56 civilians have been killed in the clashes between the country’s army and a powerful paramilitary force.
The fierce fighting came as the United States, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates called for the opposing sides to “immediately end hostilities without precondition”.
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Witnesses told the Reuters news agency that the sound of heavy artillery firing across Khartoum, the adjoining city of Omdurman and nearby Bahri continued early on Sunday morning, while an Al Jazeera television feed showed clouds of smoke billowing over the capital.
The Sudanese Doctors’ Union said at least 56 civilians had been killed and 595 people, including combatants, wounded since the clashes between the military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted on Saturday.
The two sides have been competing for power as political factions negotiate forming a transitional government after a 2021 military coup. The tensions stem from a disagreement between the military, headed by General Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, about how the paramilitary force should be integrated into the armed forces and what authority should oversee that process.
ALJAZEERA
