Clashes continue to send Khartoum residents fleeing, military to facilitate evacuation of foreign nationals

On the morning of the seventh day of fighting in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, the sound of shelling continued, though more faintly, to be heard across Khartoum.

As residents of neighborhoods in the tri-city capital took the opportunity of a comparative lull since the beginning of the Eid al-Fitr holiday to flee to adjacent cities and beyond, the military announced that it would secure safe passage to evacuate foreign nationals from Sudan on Saturday evening.

Many foreign nationals in the country have had to stay put since violent clashes broke out in streets across the capital last week, with frequent air strikes and volatile skirmishes on the ground rendering movement dangerous.

Two days of less frenzied confrontations have come after the country’s warring commanders, Sudanese Armed Forces General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo of the Rapid Support Forces militia, publicly agreed to a ceasefire beginning Friday for the three days of Eid. However, the rival forces continue to tussle for key sites of control. As the RSF mounts ground surges and the armed forces’ warplanes strike areas controlled by the RSF, civilians often find themselves caught in the crossfire.

According to the Sudanese Doctors Syndicate, 13 civilians were killed and 119 injured in the clashes on Friday, bringing the number of civilian casualties to 256 dead and 1,454 wounded. The syndicate's statement stressed that its inventory is likely missing many deaths and injuries as the syndicate was unable to reach hospitals due to the fighting, especially in Obeid. The World Health Organization has reported an estimated 431 deaths and over 3,351 injuries, with at least three aid workers among the dead.

An eyewitness told Mada Masr that projectiles struck civilian houses on the first day of Eid, with at least one woman killed inside her home. Other neighborhoods, such as Nozha, west of Khartoum, and Ashra, were damaged.

Clashes renewed on Saturday morning in Sahafa in Khartoum’s east, said one of the neighborhood’s residents, Mohamed Mojtaba. The Sudanese Armed Forces scoured a large part of the area, he said, adding that explosions could be heard echoing throughout the neighborhood. The lights have been off in Safaha for almost a week now, said Mojtaba, due to power lines having been damaged by the clashes.

RSF troops, meanwhile, stormed an industrial city in Geyad, to Khartoum’s south, which is part of the Sudanese Armed Forces’ defense industries system. The RSF stationed itself inside a gas station located in the residential part of Geyad’s manufacturing complex, said Mohamed Ezz, a resident. Around 300 motorcycles were stolen, he added. 

Some residents fled the area in fear that they would be targeted by the RSF, given that the residential complexes belong to the military.

Over in Omdurman, one of the cities making up the capital, Huda Prison, the country’s largest detention facility, was raided on Friday night. The armed forces accused the RSF of breaking into the site to release detainees, including 28 people serving death sentences, while the RSF denied the claims.

Prisoners heard gunshots, said Mohamed Adam, an activist in the revolutionary movement detained in Huda Prison on charges of killing a Sudanese police officer, speaking in a video that circulated on social media. As Adam asked where the sounds were coming from, police told him the RSF were breaking some detainees out of the facility.

But the RSF claimed the agents of the breakout were actually “remnants of the former regime and Islamists” wearing RSF uniforms to "attach the accusation to them.” In previous instances, where the RSF has been noted to be assaulting citizens, they have similarly claimed that the assailants were wearing RSF uniforms but weren't part of the group.

The relative calm in central Khartoum allowed residents to move out of the area near Khartoum International Airport and the General Command, where RSF-military skirmishes have been concentrated since Saturday, according to residents.

A cautious calm also held on Saturday in Obeid, where clashes ripped through neighborhoods over recent days when around 150 RSF vehicles swept into the western city, Abdullah Ali, a civil society activist, told Mada Masr.

Outside of the capital, clashes continued in at least four states, said the Sudanese Doctors Syndicate in a Saturday morning statement.

Meanwhile, evacuations began on Saturday for foreign nationals to make their way out of the war-torn country.

Following a turbulent week where many diplomatic missions had to take cover after an EU official was assaulted in his home and a United States convoy was fired on by what United States State Secretary Antony Blinken said were RSF forces, the military said early on Saturday that it would provide safe pathways to evacuate nationals from the United States, Britain, France and China.

A German defense ministry spokesperson also said that the Sudanese Armed Forces began preparations for a new attempt to evacuate their citizens after an earlier effort was aborted two days ago. Sweden and Switzerland have also announced that they are making plans to evacuate their nationals as soon as possible.

Saudi Arabia said Saturday afternoon that it had evacuated 157 Saudis and people of other nationalities. Kuwait said some of its citizens had arrived in Jeddah. Jordan said it had started evacuating 300 citizens.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced that the concerned authorities continue to prepare evacuations for those wishing to return to Egypt if “the conditions facilitate that,” according to a Saturday statement. 

Japan has also sent a C-130 to Djibouti, according to regional news coverage, to prepare for the transfer of Japanese and other nationals.

The clashes erupting in the Sudanese capital and across the country are the outcome of escalating tensions, which have brewed as the military has tussled with the paramilitary group over particulars of the country’s governance after the two sides acted together to overthrow the transitional government in a 2021 coup.

As residents continue to flee Khartoum, where the provision of power, water and medical supplies is unreliable, an uptick in violence has ripped through other Sudanese cities, including Obeid and Darfur.