Violent clashes between two Sudanese generals, Abdel Fattah al-Burhane and Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, have left 56 civilians dead and 600 injured in Khartoum. The generals have been at the helm of Sudan since their putsch in October 2021, and the international community has been unable to convince them to sign a plan to end the crisis.
The Arab League is meeting urgently in Cairo to call for a ceasefire. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), made up of thousands of ex-militiamen from the Darfur war who have become official auxiliaries of the regular troops, have been battling the army in the streets of Khartoum.
Heavy gun battles and explosions continued throughout the night and into Sunday morning, with military and paramilitary personnel fighting in the northern and southern suburbs of the capital. Witnesses reported columns of smoke rising from the city center where the main institutions of power are located.
The conflict had been brewing for weeks and has prevented any political solution in a country that has been trying to organize its first free elections since 2019 after 30 years of Islamo-military dictatorship. The RSF claimed to have taken the airport and presidential palace, but the army denied this and said it was holding the headquarters of its general staff, one of the main power complexes in Khartoum.
