APA-Khartoum (Sudan) Over 100 people are now known to have died in clashes between Sudan’s regular army and a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Fighting entered its third day on Monday as the skirmishes spread from the capital Khartoum to other parts of the country.
Khartoum has seen the worst of the clashes since Saturday as government soldiers battle RSF fighters for control of key installations of the city from where residents have been fleeing the fighting.
It has been the scene of sporadic explosions and automatic weapons fire especially around the seat of power which government troops claim they still hold despite earlier clashes with RSF fighters who had claimed that they were in control of the capital and nearby Omdurman and other parts of the country.
Large plumes of smoke could be seen rising above the city since the unrest began.
There are fears of civilian casualties as government fighter jets pound RSF positions in heavily populated parts of Khartoum where stray shelling saw a hospital being hit.
There were no report of casualties there.
The main airport in Khartoum has been closed while state TV has been off air since the weekend although sources say it has been back on air by Monday morning.
Meanwhile regional leaders from neighbouring South Sudan, Kenya and Djibouti have offered to mediate an end to the violence but it is not clear when they are expected to travel to Sudan.
The Egypt, US, EU and UK have joined the international community in calls for restraint and a resumption of talks by both sides.
The African Union Commission Chair Moussa Faki Mahamat has announced plans to send an envoy to Khartoum to negotiate an end to the violence.
What’s behind latest conflict?
Since late last year, a political crisis has been brewing as the military junta became divided over how and when the current transition should cede power to a civilian administration.
Sudan has been ruled by the army since the 2019 overthrow of long-term strongman Omar al-Bashir who had ruled the country since he came to power in a coup thirty years earlier.
The simmering tensions between junta leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo who heads the RSF have reached a head over disagreements on the absorption into the army of 100, 000 members of the paramilitary unit ahd who leads it.
Both sides appear to be digging in their heels, leading to fear that the violence in Khartoum and other parts of the country may not end anytime soon.
WN/as/APA