KHARTOUM, Sudan
Loud explosions again rocked greater Khartoum on Wednesday, as fighting between Sudan's warring generals showed no let-up despite talks in Saudi Arabia.
"We were woken by
explosions and heavy artillery fire," one resident of Khartoum's sister city
of Omdurman told AFP.
During the night, two huge
explosions were heard across greater Khartoum, residents of multiple districts
said.
Witnesses said the army
unleashed intense air bombardment in the center of Khartoum and around the
presidential palace. The rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary said the
palace, which it claims to control, was hit by an air strike and destroyed, but
an army source denied the claim.
More than 750 people have been
killed since the fighting erupted on April 15, the majority of them civilians.
Nearly 150,000 refugees have
crossed into neighboring countries, while 700,000 people have been displaced
inside Sudan.
Lawlessness has taken hold in
Khartoum and the two adjoining cities of Omdurman and Bahri, witnesses said.
"The biggest danger is the spread of robbery and looting and the total
absence of the police and the law," said Ahmed Saleh, 45, from Bahri.
Homes, shops and warehouses
have all been targeted, residents said. Sudan's Banks Union condemned burglary
and vandalism at some branches, saying banks were seeking to restore services
if conditions allowed.
The fighting in Khartoum,
which erupted April 15, has prompted hundreds of thousands of people to flee
their homes and triggered an aid crisis. The number of people internally
displaced within Sudan more than doubled in a week to 700,000, the U.N.'s
migration agency said.
The two forces, which have failed
to abide by repeated truce deals, sent representatives to talks in the Saudi
port city of Jeddah on Saturday.
De-facto Sudan leader General
Fattah al-Burhan said in a phone interview with an Egyptian TV station on
Monday that the talks in Jeddah were aimed at relieving pressure on civilians,
not at any political settlement. He accused the RSF of cutting off power and
telecoms in areas they controlled.
The RSF has said in statements
that it is seeking to keep services running in Khartoum and has rejected
reports of looting and other abuses. It said on Tuesday that the army had been
hitting residential areas with air strikes.
In the first report on the
talks thus far, the Saudi foreign ministry said on Tuesday that the
negotiations aimed to reach "an effective short-term ceasefire,"
Saudi state TV Al-Ekhbariya said.
U.N. aid chief Martin
Griffiths proposed the warring parties back a declaration guaranteeing safe
passage of aid supplies and the proposal has been discussed in Jeddah, a U.N.
spokesperson said.
Griffiths "hopes the
declaration can be endorsed as soon as possible so that the relief operation
can scale up swiftly and safely to meet the needs of millions of people in
Sudan," Deputy U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters.
The United Nations estimates
that 5 million additional people will need emergency assistance inside Sudan
while 860,000 are expected to flee to neighboring states that were already in
crisis at a time when rich countries have cut back on aid.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony
Blinken said on Tuesday the U.S. will not give up the goal of putting Sudan
back on track to civilian democratic governance, adding that Washington is
working in Jeddah for a ceasefire and agreement on humanitarian aid.
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