Sudan fighting in its sixth day: Here is a list of key events

As battles rage in Khartoum and other cities in Sudan, we take a look at the main developments.

Here is the situation on Thursday, April 20, 2023:

Fighting

  • Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, and its sister cities, Omdurman and Bahri, have been rocked by fierce battles between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF)
  • A new attempt at a ceasefire in Khartoum failed.
  • The RSF’s leader, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti, gave a phone interview to Al Jazeera and said his group is calling for a humanitarian truce but “the other side does not want to.”
  • “We are committed [to upholding] the truce, but the other side is bombing us with all [military] machines,” Dagalo said.
  • “We are not talking about sitting down with a criminal,” the RSF commander said. “We have been negotiating [with army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan] for two years without any results.”
  • In the morning, smoke and fires that had risen over Khartoum in previous days had abated before fighting erupted again.
  • Some of the most intense fighting has been focused around the compound housing the army headquarters and residence of General al-Burhan.

Civilians and casualties

  • International powers, struggling to evacuate their citizens after the airport and several districts housing embassies were caught up in the violence, have pushed repeatedly for a truce, to little effect.
  • As many as 70 percent of the hospitals in Khartoum and neighbouring states have been rendered “out of service” due to the fighting, according to the Sudanese Doctors Union.
  • More people have been leaving the capital. Most have been able to pass through checkpoints, but some have been stopped, according to residents and social media posts.
  • Almost 330 people have died in the fighting, and almost 3,200 more have been wounded in Khartoum, the western region of Darfur and other states, Ahmed Al-Mandhari of the World Health Organization said.
  • At least nine children have been killed and more than 50 wounded since the conflict broke out on Saturday, UNICEF said.
  • On Twitter under Arabic hashtags such as #Khartoum_Needs, residents of each district have been mobilising support for one another. On WhatsApp, hundreds of users joined a group to pool resources.

Diplomacy

  • Three flights carrying 177 Egyptian troops from Sudan have arrived in Cairo, and a separate group of 27 air force personnel are in the care of the Egyptian embassy in Sudan, according to military statements.
  • US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to al-Burhan and Dagalo as part of diplomatic efforts to end the fighting.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies