(CNN) Gunshots, explosions and overhead fighter jets were heard across the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Tuesday, as gunmen reportedly stormed the homes of people working for the United Nations and other international organisations, amid conflicting reports of an agreed ceasefire in the country.
The battle between the country’s armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is on its fourth day in Khartoum both near the army command and the presidential palace, and near two RSF bases north and west of the capital.
Attempts at a ceasefire collapsed on Tuesday when clashes broke out again between the two factions in central Khartoum, just hours after they agreed to a 24-hour ceasefire, which took effect at 6 pm local time (12 pm ET), according to witnesses. .
Residents remain trapped in the middle elsewhere in Sudan; Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said a lack of medical supplies, blood and electricity is threatening survivors’ treatment in Sudan, adding that 11 have died from their injuries in North Darfur and the last running hospital in the western region has received dozens of injured patients in the past 48 hours.
At least 270 people have been killed and more than 2,600 injured in the unrest, according to World Health Organization (WHO) officials citing Sudan’s Ministry of Health Emergency Operations Center.
Armed men attacked the homes of UN staff and employees of other international organizations in downtown Khartoum, according to reports in an internal UN document seen by CNN.
According to the document, the armed men sexually assaulted the women and stole belongings including cars. “In Khartoum, armed uniformed personnel, said to be from the RSF, entered expat residences, separated men and women and took them away,” the report said. An incident of rape was also reported.
Homes were destroyed in four days of violence.
RSF denied those reports, telling CNN in a statement that it would “never attack any UN staff or employee. RSF takes respect for international law very seriously.”
The statement went on to blame the opposing sides in the conflict, led by Sudanese military leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan: “That is the new desperate way Burhan’s army is fighting. They are giving their people RSF uniforms so that they can commit crimes against civilians and embassies and other groups including the UN so that the image and vision of the RSF can be tarnished to everyone, internationally and locally.”
The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) denied that their troops were involved in the violations and pointed to an earlier statement about crimes against humanity allegedly committed by RSF forces.
Khartoum has been wracked by violence and chaos a bloody struggle for power between Burhan, Sudan’s military chief, and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, head of the RSF.
Satellite imagery of the smoke plume at Khartoum International Airport on Sunday.
The two leaders traded blame for inciting the fighting and breaking the temporary ceasefire.
Colonel Khaled Al-Aqeel, a SAF spokesman, told Al Jazeera that they wanted to continue the ceasefire on Tuesday, shortly after gunshots were heard in the nation’s capital.
Adviser to RSF commander Mousa Khaddam also said the paramilitary force was also committed to the ceasefire, telling al-Jazeera: “Our forces deployed in many regions in Khartoum are committed to the ceasefire -fire.”
However, fighting appeared to continue hours after the ceasefire was meant to take effect. An eyewitness told CNN they heard explosions around the Army General Command building and the Presidential Palace in Khartoum.
Students trapped as clashes escalate
For more than three days, students at the University of Khartoum have been trapped inside campus buildings as artillery and gunfire rained down around them in the Sudanese capital. “It’s scary that our country will become a battlefield overnight,” said 23-year-old Al-Muzaffar Farouk, one of the 89 students, faculty members and staff who took shelter inside the university library.
Food and water are running low, but leaving is not an option — a student has been killed by gunfire outside. Khalid Abdulmun’em tried to run into the library from a nearby building when he was hit, Farouk said.
The students took his body and brought it inside “despite the bullets falling on us,” he added.
The university confirmed Abdulmun’em’s death in a Facebook post, saying he was shot around campus. In a separate post on Monday, the university urged humanitarian organizations to help evacuate dozens of people stranded on campus.
Eyewitnesses described the scenes across the Sudanese capital.
“I could see smoke outside rising from the buildings. And I could hear from my residence shots, loud shots from outside. The streets were completely empty,” said Red Cross staffer Germain Mwehu from Khartoum.
“In the building where I was staying, I saw families with children, children crying when there were airstrikes, children were terrified,” Mwehu said, adding that people hardly had access to food or medicine because in the fierce battle outside.
Children were among those killed; a 6-year-old child died on Monday after RSF ransacked a hospital in Khartoum and destroyed a maternity ward. Doctors were forced to evacuate, leaving behind patients — some of whom were newborns in incubators.
Even half a dozen hospitals were hit by both sides, according to the Doctors Trade Union of Sudan.
Smoke rises from burning aircraft inside Khartoum airport during clashes on April 17.
Health services have been severely affected by the conflict. Cyrus Paye, Project Coordinator for MSF in North Darfur’s El Fasher, said in a statement that the only remaining hospital in North Darfur was “rapidly running out of medical supplies to treat survivors.”
Other hospitals in North Darfur have had to close, either because of their proximity to the fighting, or because of the inability of staff to get to the facilities because of the violence, he added.
MSF teams also face “serious challenges” in other parts of the country, the statement said. The group’s base in Nyala, South Darfur, has been looted and in the capital Khartoum most teams are trapped in ongoing heavy fighting and unable to access warehouses to deliver vital medical supplies to hospitals.
Many diplomats and humanitarian workers were targeted.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed there was an attack on a US diplomatic convoy on Monday.
“Yesterday, we had an American diplomatic convoy fired upon. All our people are safe, but this action was reckless, it was irresponsible and, of course, unsafe,” Blinken said at a press conference on Tuesday.
The European Union’s ambassador to Sudan was also attacked at his residence on Monday, although he is now fine, according to a spokesman for the EU’s top diplomat.
And three workers from the UN’s World Food Program (WFP) were killed in Darfur, prompting the WFP to temporarily suspend all services in the country.
In remarks Tuesday morning, the two rival factions pointed at each other.
The RSF accused the army of carrying out airstrikes on residential neighborhoods and of attacking the EU ambassador’s headquarters in Khartoum; meanwhile, the army accused the RSF of targeting the ambassador’s residence, and of targeting the WFP headquarters in Darfur.
Trying to negotiate peace
Various foreign leaders have called for peace, with Blinken speaking separately to Burhan and Dagalo on Tuesday.
Blinken “expressed his deep concern about the deaths and injuries of so many Sudanese civilians,” and argued that the ceasefire was necessary to deliver aid, reunite separated families, and ensure the safety of diplomatic and humanitarian staff, according to a readout from the US State Department.
And Egypt is “in direct talks with both parties” encouraging restraint, a cessation of hostilities and a return to dialogue,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told CNN’s Christina Macfarlane in an exclusive interview Tuesday.
The Sudanese Armed Forces later issued conflicting statements on a proposed 24-hour ceasefire, which was intended to take effect later on Tuesday.
A statement citing a spokesperson on the official SAF Facebook page said the armed forces were “not aware of any coordination with mediators and the international community regarding a ceasefire” and the RSF’s announcement for a 24- time truce “is intended to cover the crushing. defeat it will receive in a few hours.”
But Burhan told CNN earlier that the SAF will “follow” the ceasefire proposal by the tripartite mechanism, which consists of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), the African Union (AU), and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development ( IMMEDIATELY).
Meanwhile, Dagalo said on Twitter that the 24-hour ceasefire “to ensure the safe passage of civilians and the evacuation of the wounded” had been approved by the paramilitary force.
Condemned by WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on the conflict in Sudan on Tuesday, saying medical supplies have run out, medical personnel are short on the ground and some health care facilities have been looted or used for military purposes.
Volker Perthes, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Sudan, said on Monday that the organization was trying to convince the two rival parties to “hold the flame” for a time, and asked them to protect the embassies, UN offices, humanitarian and Medical facilities.
Both sides had previously agreed to a three-hour ceasefire on Sunday, and again on Monday, with fighting continuing afterwards, Perthes said.
But both Burhan and Dagalo accused the other of breaking that ceasefire.
When CNN spoke with Burhan on Monday afternoon, the sound of gunfire rang out in the background despite the supposed ceasefire — and Burhan said Dagalo had violated it for the second day.
A spokesman for the RSF denied the accusation, saying they tried to abide by the ceasefire, but “they keep firing with no choice” but for the RSF to “defend itself by firing.”
CNN’s Chris Liakos, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Eyad Kourdi contributed to this report.
