Highlights: Sudan is sinking deeper into war every day. Since the failure of the talks organized by the United States and Saudi Arabia in Jeddah, no diplomatic initiative to resume dialogue has been on the agenda. On the ground, the warring parties have intensified their operations. According to residents of the capital Khartoum, Tuesday 4 July was the most violent day in weeks. A coalition of Arab tribes in South Darfur state announced in a video posted online its allegiance to the RSF and called on its members to desert the army.

Sudan is sinking deeper into war every day. Since the failure of the talks organized by the United States and Saudi Arabia in Jeddah, no diplomatic initiative to resume dialogue...

Sudan: fighting intensifies in Khartoum, residents suffer unprecedented violence

Sudan is sinking deeper into war every day. Since the collapse of the US-Saudi Arabia-led talks in Jeddah, no diplomatic initiative to resume dialogue has been on the agenda. On the ground, the warring parties have intensified their operations and according to residents of the capital Khartoum, Tuesday 4 July was the most violent day in weeks.

Smoke rises from the city of Omdurman, one of the three major cities that make up the capital Khartoum, during a particularly alarming upsurge in violence in Sudan, July 3, 2023. © AFP

Text by: Léonard Vincent Follow

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It is in Omdurman, one of the three major cities that make up Khartoum, that the heaviest fighting has taken place in the last 72 hours: at least that's what the few residents who still manage to make phone calls, as well as the Resistance Committees, which counted 24 dead and a hundred wounded among civilians.

According to military observers, the regular army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, is seeking to cut the supply lines of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commanded by General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo known as "Hemedti". The town is located to the west and north-west of the capital, and is home to convoys of fuel, ammunition, spare parts and reinforcements from Darfur.

An army fighter-bomber that carried out strikes on paramilitary positions in Omdurman was shot dead on Tuesday over Khartoum North. And the army has also targeted bridges over the Nile, seeking to separate areas controlled by General "Hemedti's" militias. Heavy fighting was also reported on Tuesday in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, besieged by the RSF.

But across the west and south of the country, communications are very difficult and hundreds of thousands of people have fled to Chad, Ethiopia and South Sudan, so first-hand accounts of the situation are extremely rare.

Army calls on civilians to join its ranks

The army said Monday it was ready to "receive and prepare" volunteer fighters. The issue of arming civilians, which would plunge the country into civil war, has been debated for weeks. "Young people and men who are capable of it" must enlist, the army chief said on June 27 in his address to the nation for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

In Darfur, a vast region in the west of the country bordering Chad, armed civilians have already participated in the fighting, as have tribal fighters. The governor of the region Minni Minnawi, a former rebel leader now close to the army, had already in May called on civilians to take up arms.

Coalition of Darfur Arab tribes pledge allegiance to RSF

Also on Monday, a coalition of Arab tribes in South Darfur state announced in a video posted online its allegiance to the RSF and called on its members to desert the army to join the ranks of the paramilitaries.

These calls reinforce UN warnings that the war now has an "ethnic dimension" in Darfur. The organization believes that abuses committed in this region, mainly by the RSF and allied Arab militias against non-Arab civilians, may amount to "crimes against humanity".

The count of sexual assaults, attributed by almost all survivors to the RSF, is growing every day, according to the government body fighting violence against women. The RSF also accuses the army of "heinous massacres", particularly in the Khartoum region, according to a statement issued on Tuesday.

Sudan: fighting intensifies in Khartoum, residents suffer unprecedented violence

Sudan: fighting intensifies in Khartoum, residents suffer unprecedented violence

Army calls on civilians to join its ranks

Coalition of Darfur Arab tribes pledge allegiance to RSF

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