Sudan continues to be racked by intense violence a week following the first outbreak of fighting between its army, and a paramilitary group called Rapid Support Forces.
According to the United Nations, more than 400 people were killed and at least 3500 injured by the violence.
Khartoum, the capital, remains the epicenter of the conflict. Many of its residents are still trapped in their homes, without water or electricity, amid air strikes and gunfire.
Ceasefire attempts fail
There have been reports of clashes in the city. This has dashed hopes for a 72-hour truce that the RSF said it would observe to honour the Muslim holiday Eid al Fitr.
Residents heard gunfire between paramilitaries, and the army on Friday after the military announced that it had sent troops to the capital on foot for the first in a week-long battle.
A video posted by the Sudan Armed Forces on Facebook shows armed soldiers marching down a street in the capital, to the cheers of a crowd.
A second clip, filmed just before 6am Friday in the Bahri residential district, North Khartoum captures the sound and rapid fire of gunfire.
On Friday afternoon, heavy fighting was reported from Khartoum. A second video taken around 10 miles from the center of Khartoum, shows black smoke rising from a building to the north of the capital while vehicles are moving down the road. It is not clear if these are members of the Sudanese Army or RSF.
Seizing infrastructure
The videos were shot in the areas surrounding Khartoum’s International Airport. This has been a major battleground for the city.
Both sides are trying to take control of key infrastructure sites, and the Khartoum airport is significant for both strategic and symbolic purposes. The airport has been the focus of conflicting reports by the two sides, who both claimed to have a presence in the area as recently as last Thursday.
Satellite images of the airport reveal that at least 13 aircraft, including a transport military plane, were destroyed since the conflict began.
The marker will show you how the airport looked Wednesday in comparison to November of last year.
Hospitals are severely affected
The violence has also had a serious impact on the medical facilities in Sudan. According to the Sudan Doctor’s Union, 70% of hospitals around areas of fighting in Sudan are no longer being used.
Some of the hospitals have been destroyed or damaged by shelling. Others have had to evacuate their patients because of fighting.
Map showing some of the affected areas in Khartoum
The group spoke of the severe damage caused by fighting to three hospitals in El Obeid, Darfur. They urged the international organizations to create humanitarian corridors immediately.
When did the war begin?
The conflict started on 15 April but has been simmering for some time. General Abdel Fattah al Burhan (who leads the armed force) and RSF leader, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, have had a power struggle.
Both men worked together in 2019 to overthrow former leader Omar al-Bashir, but now they disagree on how the country should run. Al Burhan, Sudan’s de facto head of state since a coup in 2021, has promised to oversee Sudan’s transition to civilian rule.
This dispute stems from a disagreement about one of the tenets in the framework that was agreed upon for the transition. Hemedti and the army disagree on how long it should take to integrate the RSF into the military. Hemedti believes it should take ten years, while the Army wants to complete it in two.
Al Burhan said that RSF soldiers had been deployed across the country before the outbreak of violence.
Both sides blamed each other for the attack that began on Saturday last week at a base of military south of Khartoum.
In just a few hours, the Sudanese army used its air force and dropped bombs on RSF locations in the capital. The population of the capital is 10 million.
The outbreak spread quickly to other cities in the country, including Merowe and El Obeid.
Al Burhan spoke to the nation Friday. He told citizens that the fights will be over soon and that he was committed to the transition from military rule to civilian rule.
The RSF continues to claim that it has taken over large areas of the country, including Khartoum’s central area.
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