We don’t know when this nightmare and the fear will end.”Įxperts say a humanitarian catastrophe is imminent, with aid agencies facing massive challenges in reaching the needy. “We’ve got into a state of permanent terror because the battles are around the centres of residential neighbourhoods. “Since yesterday evening, and this morning, there are … the sounds of clashes,” said Al-Sadiq Ahmed, a 49-year-old engineer in the capital. In Khartoum, residents sought shelter from bombardments and airstrikes for the 20th day. “I don’t see it likely for them to stop fighting unless one suffers really huge losses and can’t find the resources anywhere to replenish their forces,” Hoffmann told the Guardian. Both men now appear convinced they can win the current conflict and so gain unchallenged control over Sudan’s crumbling state and valuable resources.Ġ3:43 Why violence has broken out in Sudan – video explainerĪnette Hoffmann, a research fellow with the Clingendael Institute, The Hague, said the intensity of recent battles was determined by a “political agenda … linked to the push for negotiations”. The fighting has pitted forces loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto military leader of Sudan, against those of the RSF’s commander, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who is also known as Hemedti. At least 334,000 people have been displaced inside Sudan and tens of thousands more to Egypt, Chad, South Sudan, Central African Republic and Ethiopia, according to UN agencies. More than 550 people have been killed in 20 days of violence, according to ministry of health statistics, but the true total is likely to be much higher as many deaths go uncounted. It must end,” Biden said.Īnalysts and campaigners said the move was long overdue. “The violence taking place in Sudan is a tragedy – and it is a betrayal of the Sudanese people’s clear demand for civilian government and a transition to democracy. The continuing failure of combatants in Khartoum and elsewhere across Sudan to respect successive ceasefires prompted the US president, Joe Biden, on Thursday to threaten new sanctions against those responsible for “threatening the peace, security, and stability of Sudan undermining Sudan’s democratic transition using violence against civilians or committing serious human rights abuses”. The sprawling complex is now badly damaged and reported to be largely held by the RSF. The clashes were particularly intense around the presidential palace at the centre of Khartoum, whose possession grants its occupants an appearance of legitimacy as rulers of Sudan.

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