Sudan fighting enters third week as UN says country is falling apart

The sounds of air strikes, anti-aircraft weaponry and artillery could be heard in Khartoum and dark smoke rose over parts of the city, as fighting in Sudan entered a third week.

Fighting between the army and a rival paramilitary force continued on Saturday despite the announcement of a 72-hour ceasefire extension on Friday, when strikes by air, tanks and artillery rocked Khartoum and the adjacent cities of Bahri and Ombdurman.

Hundreds have been killed and tens of thousands have fled for their lives in a power struggle between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that erupted into violence on April 15, derailing an internationally-backed transition toward democratic elections.

"There is no right to go on fighting for power when the country is falling apart," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Al Arabiya television.

The fighting has also reawakened a two-decade-old conflict in the western Darfur region where scores have died this week.

The army has been deploying jets or drones on RSF forces in neighbourhoods across the capital. Many residents are pinned down by urban warfare with scant food, fuel, water and power.

More than 500 people have been killed since battles erupted on April 15 between the forces of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his number two Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Burhan and Daglo have agreed to multiple truces since the war began, but none has effectively taken hold as the number of dead civilians continues to rise, thousands flee the country and those without the means to escape face an increasing struggle to survive.

Thousands internally displaced

More than 75,000 people were internally displaced within Sudan just in the first week of the fighting, according to the United Nations.

Only 16 percent of hospitals were operating as normal in the capital.

The latest three-day ceasefire is due to expire at midnight Sunday (2200 GMT). It was agreed on Thursday after mediation led by the United States, Saudi Arabia, the African Union and the United Nations.

The RSF accused the army of violating it with air strikes on its bases in Omdurman, Khartoum's sister city at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile rivers, and Mount Awliya.

The army blamed the RSF for violations.

The violence has sent tens of thousands of refugees across Sudan's borders and threatens to stir instability across a volatile swathe of Africa between the Sahel and the Red Sea.

Foreign governments have evacuated diplomats and citizens to safety over the past week, including with airlifts. Britain said its evacuations would end on Saturday as demand for spots on planes had declined.

The US said several hundred Americans had departed Sudan by land, sea or air. A convoy of buses carrying 300 Americans left Khartoum late on Friday on a 850-kilometre (525-mile) trip to the Red Sea in the first US-organised evacuation effort for citizens, the New York Times reported.

In Darfur, at least 96 people had died since Monday in inter-communal violence rekindled by the army-RSF conflict, UN human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said.

On Saturday a ferry with around 1,900 evacuees arrived at King Faisal Naval base in Jeddah after crossing the Red Sea from Port Sudan, in the latest sea evacuation to the kingdom.

Britain said it would end its evacuation flights on Saturday, after airlifting more than 1,500 people this week.

The UN said Friday its last international staff had been evacuated from Darfur.

The World Food Programme has said the violence could plunge millions more into hunger in a country where 15 million people — one-third of the population — already need aid to stave off famine.