Khartoum, May 8 (EFE).- Sporadic explosions were heard in Khartoum on Monday, disrupting a relative calm that prevailed in Sudan’s capital amid a fragile ceasefire between rival military forces.
For three weeks, Sudan’s army chief and de facto president Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has been in a power struggle against his deputy Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, also known as Hemedti, who heads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Khartoum residents told Efe that loud explosions, which they thought were caused by air and artillery strikes, could be heard intermittently in Shambat in northern Khartoum, where an RSF camp is located.
Army fighter jets also hovered over several districts west of the River Nile, which divides Khartoum, and the neighboring city of Omdurman.
Other neighborhoods in the Sudanese capital woke up to relative calm, allowing citizens to go out and stock up on basic goods. Many complained of soaring food prices.
Over the weekend, representatives of the army and the paramilitary group held talks in the Saudi city of Jeddah hoping to achieve a permanent truce in the African country, but no progress has taken place so far.
International and Arab organizations, meanwhile, have amped up efforts to bring medical and humanitarian aid to Sudan through the eastern city of Port Sudan, where calm has prevailed since the start of the conflict on Apr. 15.
According to Sudan’s health ministry, around 551 people have died and almost 5,000 others have been wounded in the fighting so far.EFE
az-fa/smq/ch
