Sudan death toll nears 100 as fighting rages and hospitals run short of supplies

At least 97 people have been killed and hundreds wounded as clashes spread across Sudan, and the World Health Organization (WHO) warns that some hospitals are running out of critical supplies to treat the injured.

Fighting erupted on Saturday between army units loyal to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of Sudan’s transitional governing Sovereign Council, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, who is deputy head of the council.

It was the first such outbreak of fighting since both groups joined forces to oust the veteran Islamist autocrat Omar al-Bashir in 2019. The violence was sparked by a disagreement over the integration of the RSF into the military as part of a transition towards civilian rule to end the political-economic crisis sparked by a military coup in 2021.

Burhan and Hemedti agreed a three-hour pause in fighting from 4pm local time (1400 GMT to 1700 GMT) to allow humanitarian evacuations proposed by the United Nations, the UN mission in Sudan said, but the deal was widely ignored after a brief period of relative calm.

In a statement early on Monday, the doctor’s trade union said at least 97 civilians have been killed and 365 others injured since fighting erupted.

Smoke rises as clashes continue in the Sudanese capital on Sunday. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

The UN’s World Food Programme suspended operations in the country after three of its employees were killed in clashes in Darfur. Fighting was also reported in the eastern border state of Kassala.

As clashes continued, the WHO said hospitals were running short of medical supplies.

“Several of the nine hospitals in Khartoum receiving injured civilians have run out of blood, transfusion equipment, intravenous fluids and other vital supplies,” the agency said.

Heavy fighting was reported around Khartoum international airport and the military headquarters on Sunday. Witnesses said the army had carried out airstrikes on RSF barracks and bases – including in Omdurman across the Nile River from Khartoum – and managed to destroy most of their facilities.

A statement by the army said there were ongoing clashes in the vicinity of military headquarters in central Khartoum, and said that RSF soldiers were stationing snipers on buildings, but that they were “monitored and being dealt with.”

In Nyala, the capital of South Darfur and Sudan’s most populous city after Khartoum, local people told of being forced to flee due to fighting between the two rival factions.

Selma Ahmed, from the city’s Khartoum Belail neighbourhood, said that her area has been emptied of people. “Nobody has remained here, the fight was heavy, people had to flee and reports of looting by armed forces – they love taking cars, even if the car can’t move they just [take it] with a bigger vehicle,” she said.

“The RSF seized control of the western military basement in Nyala yesterday from the army and today they seized the international airport.”

“There’s so much false information and everyone is lying. We don’t know when this will end, how it will end,” she added.

Satellite photo by Planet Labs PBC shows two burning planes at Khartoum International Airport on Sunday. Photograph: Planet Labs PBC/AP

Efforts by neighbours and regional bodies to end the violence intensified on Sunday. Egypt offered to mediate, and regional African bloc Intergovernmental Authority on Development plans to send the presidents of Kenya, South Sudan and Djibouti as soon as possible to reconcile Sudanese groups in conflict, Kenyan president William Ruto’s office said on Twitter.

The long-feared violent crisis between the two main factions of the ruling military regime threatens to destabilise not just Sudan but much of the region, as well as exacerbating a battle for influence that involves major Gulf powers, the US, EU and Russia.

Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report