Fighting intensifies in Sudan as warring parties blame each other

Explosions have jolted the Sudanese capital as fighting intensifies between the country’s army and a paramilitary force.

Both the Sudanese Army and Rapid Support Force (RSF) have been blaming each other for an attack on the civilian population.

According to the witnesses, artillery fire was reported on Thursday in the east of Khartoum while the northern suburbs were caught under heavy shelling from the army.

The three-day ceasefire brokered by the US- and Saudi ended on Wednesday morning with the fighting resuming within minutes.

The army blamed the RSF for “taking advantage of the truce to mobilize its forces and commit several violations against civilians.”

The RSF on the other hand charged the army with fabricating a video of a rape attack, alleging "one of the actors appeared in the uniform" of the armed forces, "proving their guilt.”

Since April 15 fighting between the regular army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF headed by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo has claimed more than 2,000 lives.

In the last two months, the two rival Sudanese generals have been mainly fighting in the capital and the western Darfur region, but on Wednesday, the army accused a key rebel group in South Kordofan state, southwest of Khartoum, of having "attacked" its troops.

According to the residents, Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state witnessed the worst clashes with both sides using “all types of weapons”, AFP reported on Wednesday.

The United Nations has warned that the conflict has taken an ethnic turn in Darfur, home to ethnic minority groups including many Arab tribes.

According to the figures given by the International Organization for Migration almost 600,000 people have fled Sudan for neighboring countries.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has reported that more than two million are displaced inside the country due to the conflict.

MG