Fighting erupted in Sudan’s capital on Tuesday, the eve of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, as paramilitaries seized Khartoum’s main police post.
Fighting in the city is currently centered on military bases between the army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
At the same time, in Sudan’s west, the conflict in Darfur has reached “alarming levels,” according to the UN.
Since the battle began on April 15, the RSF has built strongholds in residential areas of the capital, while the army, despite its air supremacy, has failed to acquire a foothold on the ground.
Millions of people are still trapped in Khartoum as the RSF tries to seize the entire city, despite being caught in the crossfire without electricity or water in brutal heat.
The RSF stated late Sunday that they had taken the headquarters of the paramilitary Central Reserve police, which Washington sanctioned last year for rights violations.
According to witnesses, the RSF targeted army bases in central, northern, and southern Khartoum on Tuesday.
Mawaheb Omar, who has been stranded at home with her four children, told AFP that she expected Eid celebrations to be “miserable and tasteless because we can’t even buy mutton.”
