Battles in Sudan intensify on 3rd day civilian death toll reach 97

Sudans embattled capital awoke on Monday to a third day of heavy fighting between the army and a powerful rival force for control of the country as the weekends civilian death toll rose to 97Airstrikes and shelling intensified in parts of Khartoum and the adjoining city of OmdurmanRapid sustained firing was heard near the military headquarters with white smoke rising from the area Residents hunkering down in their homes reported power outages and incidents of lootingThe clashes are part of a power struggle between Gen AbdelFattah Burhan the commander of the armed forces and Gen Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo the head of the Rapid Support Forces a paramilitary groupThe two generals are former allies who jointly orchestrated an October 2021 military coup that derailed Sudans shortlived transition to democracy Both men have dug in saying they would not negotiate a truce instead engaging in verbal attacks and demanding the others surrender Still both have powerful foreign backers making them potentially susceptible to mounting diplomatic pressureSince fighting erupted on Saturday 97 civilians have been killed and hundreds have been wounded said the Sudan Doctors Syndicate a prodemocracy group monitoring casualtiesThere has been no official word on the number of fighters killedFootage posted online Monday purported to show RSF barracks in Omdurman The bodies of dozens of men in camouflage uniforms were seen sprawled on beds and the floor of a medical ward and in a sandy outdoor area Another video showed civilians inside the base apparently looting foodThe authenticity of the videos could not be confirmed independently but they surfaced after the military said it has targeted RSF bases with airstrikes Mohmed alMokhtar alNour an RSF adviser told the Al Jazeera satellite network Sunday that RSF forces have withdrawn from the campThe doctors group said a stray shell struck a hospital south of Khartoum on Monday morning without causing causalities The chaotic scenes of fighting with tanks truckmounted machine guns artillery and warplanes in densely populated areas of the capital are unprecedented Sudan has a long history of civil strife but much of that has taken place in remote tribal areas far from KhartoumAlso read Drone strike kills 21 civilians in north Nigeria claim witnessesThe violence erupted during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan which ends later this week and is capped by the threeday Eid alFitr holiday On Sunday the warring sides agreed to a threehour pause in fighting to allow civilians to stock up on necessities Compliance was spotty and there were reports of casualties during the humanitarian pauseTop diplomats urged the sides to stop fighting including the US secretary of state the UN secretarygeneral the EU foreign policy chief the head of the Arab League and the head of the African Union Commission The UN Security Council was to discuss the developments in Sudan later on MondayUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken renewed his call for a truce and a return to negotiations during a meeting of the Group of Seven wealthy nations in Japan on MondayPeople in Sudan want the military back in the barracks he saidThey want democracy They want the civilianled government Sudan needs to return to that pathThe fighting also spread to the warwrecked western Darfur region and areas of northern and eastern Sudan near the borders with Egypt and Ethiopia Over the weekend the World Food Program suspended its operations in Sudan after three of its employees were killed in fighting in Darfur In recent months negotiations had been under way to get back on a path to democracyUnder international pressure Burhan and Dagalo agreed to a framework agreement with political parties and prodemocracy groupsHowever the deal was vague on key points of dispute including how the RSF would be integrated into the armed force and who would have final controlThe signing of the deal was put off repeatedly amid rising tensions between Burhan and DagaloThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever