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Fighting raged in Sudan on Friday, despite rival forces agreeing to extend a truce aimed to stem nearly two weeks of war-fare that has killed hundreds and caused widespread destruction.
In the war-ravaged western Darfur region, scores have been killed in days of bitter urban battles in the city of El Geneina, the United Nations says.
Black clouds rose over the capital Khartoum as foreign governments scrambled to organise mass evacuations of their citi-zens, with Turkey’s defence ministry reporting Friday that one of their military transport aircraft had come under fire.
There have been multiple truce efforts since fighting broke out on April 15 between Sudan’s army led by General Abdel Fat-tah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commanded by his former deputy and fellow coup leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. All have failed.
On Thursday, the two sides agreed to extend a repeatedly broken ceasefire for three more days, with the United States, Saudi Arabia, the African Union, the UN and others hoping it would help forge a “more durable cessation of hostilities”.
Since a power struggle between Burhan and Daglo erupted into violence, fighter jets have pounded RSF positions in densely packed districts of Khartoum, as fighters on the ground exchanged volleys of artillery and heavy machine gun fire.
In some parts of the city of some five million people trenches have been dug, as gunmen battle each other street by street.
At least 512 people have been killed and 4,193 wounded in the fighting, according to health ministry figures, although the real death toll is likely much higher.
Fighting has also spread across Sudan, especially in long-troubled Darfur, where witnesses reported intense conflict and looting.
The Darfur Bar Association, a civil society group, said fighters were “launching rockets at houses” in the West Darfur state capital, El Geneina, some 1,100 kilometres (685 miles) west of Khartoum, It also reported firing from “rifles, machine guns and anti-aircraft weapons”.
