Air strikes, gunfire rock Khartoum as fighting in Sudan rages on

Air strikes and gunfire have rocked Sudan's capital as fighting showed no sign of abating, despite the threat of renewed US sanctions and mounting deaths, including dozens of children.

Battles persisted on Friday, a day after US President Joe Biden threatened sanctions against those responsible for "threatening the peace, security, and stability of Sudan" and "undermining Sudan's democratic transition".

Hundreds have died in nearly three weeks of fighting between forces of Sudan's de facto leader Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, who leads the regular army, and his deputy turned rival Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The north African country had already suffered under decades of sanctions during the rule of Omar Al Bashir, ousted in a palace coup in 2019 following mass protests on the streets.

"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. It must end," Biden said.

Witnesses reported continued air strikes and explosions in various parts of Khartoum on Friday, including near the airport.

The RSF has yet to respond following the announcement Wednesday of a seven-day truce brokered by neighbouring South Sudan and accepted by the army.

But early Friday, the paramilitary group said it was extending by only three days a previous truce brokered under US-Saudi mediation.

'Reality likely to be much worse'

The conflict has killed about 700 people so far, most of them in Khartoum and the western Darfur region, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

The UN children's agency, UNICEF, warned Friday that "the situation in Sudan has become fatal for a frighteningly large number of children".

Spokesman James Elder said the agency had received reports from a trusted partner — not yet independently verified by the United Nations — that 190 children were killed and 1,700 wounded during the first 11 days of the conflict.

He said the figures had been gathered from health facilities in Khartoum and Darfur since fighting broke out on April 15, meaning they only cover children who actually made it to facilities in those areas.

"The reality is likely to be much worse," Elder warned.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the UN secretary-general, citing the World Food Programme, said that the Sudan conflict could cause hunger and malnutrition for 19 million people in the coming months.

WFP "projects that the number of acutely food insecure people in Sudan will increase by between two and 2.5 million people. That raises the number to a total of 19 million people in the next three to six months if the current conflict continues," Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for Antonio Guterres, said.