Fighting intensifies in Khartoum as civilians flee

Overnight on Tuesday, the Merowe airbase changed hands, a resident of the area told Mada Masr, with the Sudanese Armed Forces taking control of the key battleground after the Rapid Support Forces withdrew from the site without a major clash between the two forces taking place. 

The airbase has been a key battleground since the violent clashes, which have left 174 civilians dead and over 1,000 injured, first flared on Saturday between Sudan’s military and the paramilitary and the site where the RSF was holding a cohort of Egyptian Armed Forces personnel.

Departing Merowe, the RSF took with them the Egyptian soldiers to Khartoum, which lies over 300 kilometers to the south of the airbase, the group said later on Wednesday. The group also issued a call for a ceasefire.

Residents of Khartoum woke on Wednesday to the sight of military fighter jets flying low over the capital and the sound of explosions, as forces from both sides deployed in greater numbers and relocated from other states across the country to converge on the Sudanese capital.

One eyewitness — who lives on the east bank of the Nile in Khartoum— reported seeing convoys belonging to both forces pass through the area to clash on Tuesday night in the nearby Marabia al-Sharif neighborhood.

A large force of RSF fighters stationed itself west of Omdurman on Wednesday morning, an area that was relatively calm at the time, another eyewitness told Mada Masr. “Part of the force entered the road linking the city to the Northern State. Another force — I don’t know where it came from — stationed itself at Angola Square in the suburb of Ombada,” the eyewitness said.

Confrontations raged today at dawn around the General Command of the Armed Forces, the presidential palace, Khartoum International Airport, and a number of key facilities in central Khartoum, a city that has descended over the course of five days into a war zone. 

Witnesses told Mada Masr that military vehicles retreated from the heart of the clashes in the vicinity of the General Command to the surrounding neighborhoods of Khartoum 2 and 3, Amarat, Zohour, and Eastern Dayum, where fire was exchanged forcing dozens of families to evacuate their homes and flee to areas south of the city.

Khartoum’s residents are fleeing the city in droves with the transport nexus south of the capital crowded for the past two days as residents try to reach the cities and countryside near the capital, especially the state of Gezira, south of Khartoum. 

Samira Abdallah, a Khartoum resident who left for Gezira, told Mada Masr, “We went through a harsh experience while my friends and I were leaving a neighborhood near the airborne corps base in Khartoum Bahri, which is witnessing violent confrontations.”

“On my way out, I saw corpses scattered in the streets of Khartoum, and checkpoints belonging to the forces of the two parties stationed every few kilometers, searching travelers and asking them about their identities.” 

Residents of the southern neighborhood have taken the initiative to provide transport vehicles to move residents of the Azhari, Salama and Mayo neighborhoods wanting to leave to Gezira.

Meanwhile, hospitals are currently witnessing a shortage of staff and equipment, prompting Sudan’s doctors syndicate to issue a warning regarding the country's healthcare situation, with 39 out of 59 hospitals out of service.

On the diplomatic front, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told CNN yesterday that Egypt is “in direct contact with the two parties to encourage restraint, an end to hostilities and a return to dialogue.”

Responding to a question regarding the Egyptian military force detained by the RSF, Shoukry said, “We are making contacts regarding the safety of these soldiers. Egypt has many active participants in various areas of capacity building in Sudan. We are closely monitoring the current situation and how it affects all Egyptian citizens in Sudanese territory.”

All the Egyptian soldiers are fine and receiving necessary care, according to the RSF statement issued Wednesday, which added that they would be transferred to Egypt at the first possible opportunity.

The Sudanese Foreign Ministry later issued a statement condemning the RSF for detaining the Egyptian nationals and relocating them from Merowe Air Base, holding the RSF accountable for their safety and calling on the international community to condemn the paramilitary for taking prisoners of war in violation of the Geneva Convention.

Shoukry made several phone calls on Wednesday to the foreign ministers of Oman, Chad and the United Kingdom, in which they discussed how to calm the situation in Sudan.

*Writing by Ahmed Bakr