RSF members remained inside Khartoum international airport besieged by the army but it was holding back from striking them to avoid wreaking major damage, witnesses said.
“The hour of victory is near,” the army said in a statement on Sunday. “We pray for mercy for the innocent lives taken by this reckless adventure taken by the rebel Rapid Support militia ... We will have good news for our patient and proud people soon, God willing.”
But a major problem, witnesses and residents said, was posed by thousands of heavily armed RSF members deployed inside neighbourhoods of Khartoum and other cities, with no authority able to control them.
“We’re scared, we haven’t slept for 24 hours because of the noise and the house shaking. We’re worried about running out of water and food, and medicine for my diabetic father,” Huda, a young resident in southern Khartoum told Reuters.
“There’s so much false information and everyone is lying. We don’t know when this will end, how it will end,” she added.
Tagreed Abdin, an architect in Khartoum, said the power was out and people were trying to conserve phone batteries. “We can hear air strikes, shelling, and gunfire,” she said.
Sudan’s MTN telecommunications company blocked internet services on the orders of the government telecommunications regulator, two company officials told Reuters.
State television cut its transmission on Sunday afternoon, Reuters reporters in Khartoum and several cities outside the country said. It was not clear what caused the outage.
The U.N. World Food Programme said it had temporarily halted all operations in hunger-stricken areas of Sudan after three Sudanese employees were killed during fighting in North Darfur and a WFP plane was hit during a gun battle at Khartoum airport.
“I ... am extremely appalled by reports of projectiles hitting U.N. and other humanitarian premises, as well as reports of looting of U.N. and other humanitarian premises in several locations in Darfur,” Volker Perthes, U.N. special envoy for Sudan and head of its country mission, said in a statement.
A protracted confrontation could plunge Sudan into widespread conflict as it struggles with economic breakdown and tribal violence, derailing efforts to move towards elections.
Energy-rich powers Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have sought to shape events in Sudan, seeing the transition away from toppled strongman Bashir’s rule as a way to roll back Islamist influence and improve stability in the region.
They have also pursued investments in sectors including agriculture, where Sudan holds vast potential, and ports on Sudan’s Red Sea coast.
Several groups of people reported being stranded by fighting near the presidential palace and military headquarters in Khartoum.
The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors reported at least 56 civilians had been killed and 595 people including combatants had been wounded since the fighting erupted.
Scores of military personnel were killed, the doctors’ committee said, without giving a specific number due to a lack of first-hand information from hospitals.
Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdul had separate phone calls with Burhan and Hemedti and called for an end to military escalation, Saudi state media said on Sunday. The minister affirmed Riyadh’s call for calm.
In a speech to an Arab League meeting on the crisis on Sunday, Sudan said the Sudanese should be allowed to reach a settlement internally without foreign interference.
In an emergency session, the African Union’s Peace and Security Council also said it strongly rejected any external interference that could complicate the situation in Sudan.
The armed forces said it would not negotiate with the RSF unless the force dissolved. The army told soldiers seconded to the RSF to report to nearby army units, which could deplete RSF ranks if they obey.
RSF leader Hemedti, deputy head of state, called military chief Burhan a “criminal” and a “liar”.
