Sudan crisis: Shootouts reported in residential areas on Eid Al Fitr holiday; death toll now over 400

Gunfire ripped through several neighbourhoods of Sudan's capital Khartoum on the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al Fitr on Friday, after the army deployed on foot for the first time in its almost week-long fight with a paramilitary force.

Soldiers and gunmen from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) shot at each other in residential areas of the north, west and centre of the city, including during the call for special early morning Eid prayers, witnesses said.

The unabated fighting has killed hundreds and undermined an effort by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to broker a temporary truce over the three-day holiday and allow civilians to reach safety.

In the absence of a ceasefire, foreign nations, including the US, have been unable to evacuate their citizens from Sudan.

Death toll rises

The World Health Organisation said at least 413 people have already been killed and thousands injured in the conflict, which has tipped Sudan into a humanitarian disaster, with hospitals under attack and up to 20,000 people fleeing into neighbouring Chad.

Even before the conflict, about a quarter of Sudan's people were facing acute hunger. The UN World Food Programme halted its Sudan operation, one of its largest, on Saturday after three of its workers were killed.

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Army chief General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan said on Thursday he saw "no other option but the military solution" to the power struggle with the paramilitary force that erupted into violence last weekend.

The conflict between two previously allied leaders of the ruling military junta, army chief Burhan and RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, risks drawing in Sudan's neighbours.

The thud of heavy weaponry could also be heard across Khartoum and its sister cities, together one of Africa's biggest urban areas. Army troops brandishing semi-automatic weapons were greeted by cheers on one street, footage released by the military on Friday showed.

The violence was triggered by disagreement over an internationally backed plan to form a new civilian government four years after the fall of autocrat Omar Al Bashir to mass protests, and two years after a military coup.

Both sides accuse the other of thwarting the transition.

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• World
• MENA