KHARTOUM: Renewed artillery exchanges rocked greater Khartoum early on Wednesday (Jun 21) as Sudan’s warring generals resumed fighting just minutes after the latest United States and Saudi-brokered ceasefire expired.
Already on Tuesday evening, an immense fire had engulfed the intelligence service’s headquarters in the capital with each side accusing the other of attacking it in violation of the 72-hour truce.
A source within the regular army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, accused rival paramilitaries loyal to his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo of shelling the building.
A source within the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) said that an “army drone bombed the building where RSF fighters had gathered, sparking a fire and the partial destruction of the intelligence headquarters”.
On Wednesday morning, residents of Omdurman, just across the Nile from Khartoum, reported heavy artillery exchanges within minutes of the ceasefire expiring at 6am (4am GMT).
Army warplanes flew low over several adjacent districts, the residents said.
The ceasefire, which coincided with an international donors’ conference in Geneva on Monday, brought a brief respite to the millions of civilians who have been trapped by the fighting in greater Khartoum, but an exodus of refugees continued to pour out of the war’s other main battleground Darfur.
Nationwide, more than 2,000 people have been killed since the power struggle between Burhan and Daglo erupted into fighting on Apr 15, the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project said.
More than 2.5 million people have fled their homes, of whom around 550,000 have sought refuge in neighbouring countries, according to the International Organization for Migration.
For all the latest world News Click Here
