Sudan battle completes a month with prospects of end remain bleak

No end to the deadly conflict in sight that started one month ago as two power groups in Sudan have locked themselves in fierce fighting for supremacy with families in Khartoum and other war zone areas living under constant terror and chaos.

Gun battles have been raging for a month while the eastern region of Sudan, Darfur has plunged into deadly chaos.

There have been weeks of shortages of basic necessities with power blackouts and disrupted communication further exacerbated the situation for the citizens.

The capital of 5 million, long a place of relative stability, has become a shell of its former self.

Charred aircraft lie on the airport tarmac, foreign embassies are shuttered and hospitals, banks, shops and wheat silos have been destroyed by looters.

According to the medics, violence also renewed in El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state, leaving hundreds killed and the health system in "total collapse".

Witnesses have said that fighting continued Monday morning, with loud explosions heard across Khartoum and thick smoke billowing in the sky while warplanes drew anti-aircraft fire.

A resident of the capital said: "The situation is becoming worse by the day."

"People are getting increasingly scared because the two sides... are becoming increasingly violent."

The fighting erupted on April 15 between the army loyal to Chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. What remains of the government has retreated to Port Sudan about 850 kilometres (500 miles) away, the hub for mass evacuations.

Nearly 1,000 people have been reported to be killed during the violent standoff especially in and around Khartoum as well as the ravaged West Darfur state, according to medics.

The violence Friday aloe in El Geneina claimed at least 280 lives, said Sudan’s doctor's union, which cited "difficulties in surveying all casualties".

"There was still heavy shelling on Sunday that hit my home, damaging a part of it and injuring one of my sisters," said a resident of El Geneina.

"Other houses around us were completely destroyed."

In its latest pressure of the foes, the Burhan declared that he was freezing the RSF’s assets, while Daglo threatened in an audio recording that the army chief would be "brought to justice and hanged" in a public square.

Turbulent history

History of Sudan is filled with military coups however, a light of hope emerged when in 2019, President Omar al0Bashir was overthrown by mass demonstrations. After his removal, there was a transition to civilian rule.

As the protests overthrew the long-serving president, sanctions from the US and other foreign countries were lifted and Sudan was becoming part of the international community. However, the transition was disrupted by the generals in another coup in 2021.

Despite the brutal clashes neither side has been able to secure a dominant position of battlefield advantage.

Egypt backs the Sudanese army while the UAE and foreign fighters support Daglo.

Daglo-led RSF is an offshoot of the notorious Janjaweed militia, that allegedly committed atrocities in the Darfur war that began two decades ago.

There had been multiple calls for a ceasefire and efforts encouraging both sides to negotiate the conflict however, both sides broke the ceasefire agreements.

It demonstrates a sense of impunity unprecedented even by Sudan’s standards of civil conflict," said Alex Rondos, the European Union’s former special representative to the Horn of Africa.

According to the UN, the security breakdown has broadened to the country's far-flung regions where ethnic violence last week left over 50 killed in the central West Kordofan and the southern White Nile states.