Fighting in SudanWhat Happened on the 3rd Day of Fighting in Sudan

More than a dozen hospitals have shut down, and the E.U.’s ambassador was attacked inside his residence as rival military factions continued to battle for control of the northeast African nation.

Follow live news updates on the fighting in Sudan.

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Abdi Latif DahirDeclan Walsh

Abdi Latif Dahir and

Reporting from Nairobi, Kenya

As fighting in Sudan intensifies, hospitals and aid groups become targets.

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A satellite image of a damaged hospital in Khartoum, Sudan, on Monday.Credit...Maxar Technologies, via Reuters

NAIROBI, Kenya — As two rival generals, each with his own army, grappled for power in Sudan on Monday, even hospitals trying to tend to the swelling numbers of wounded were no longer havens.

At one overwhelmed medical center, the morning began with shelling. Then, members of a paramilitary force barged inside, ordered newborns and other patients to be evacuated, and began taking up positions, one doctor said.

“The hospital turned into a battlefield,” said the doctor, Musab Khojali, an emergency room physician at the Police Hospital in Burri, northeast of the capital, Khartoum.

Many other hospitals were also reported to have come under attack on Monday, the third day of fighting in Sudan.

The death toll has risen to at least 180, with about 1,800 others injured.

The two generals, who together seized power in a coup in 2021, have now turned against each other — rebuffing all attempts by mediators who for months had been pressing them to unite their fighting forces under one umbrella, relinquish power and allow a transition to civilian rule.

Amid growing reports of random violence and looting, concerns grew that the fighting might embroil other nations in the region, including Egypt, which has troops in the country, as well as Chad, Ethiopia and Libya. Russia has also been trying to make inroads in Sudan, and members of the Kremlin-affiliated Wagner private military company are posted there.

Leaders from around the world called for a cease-fire, but it was not clear who, if anyone, was in control of Sudan, Africa’s third-largest country, by area.

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Shuttered shops in Khartoum on Monday.Credit...Marwan Ali/Associated Press

In Khartoum, where many have lost power and water, residents watched warplanes and military helicopters circling ominously, and homes shuddered with the sound of shelling. Those few who dared venture out from their homes found the streets dangerous and desolate.

“Everyone is afraid,” said Ahmed Abuhurira, a 28-year-old mechanical engineer who went out to try to charge his cellphone. “You can see it in their eyes. People are panicking.”

The fighting began on Saturday, when forces loyal to Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, the head of the paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces, began clashing with forces loyal to the Sudanese army chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

Only the army has aircraft, and on Monday, General Hamdan accused his rival of “bombing civilians from the air.” The Sudanese Army said in a statement that it was “operating within the rules of conflict and international humanitarian law.”

The turn of events has worsened a crisis in a nation where one-third of its 45 million people were already in need of food aid. Now, the violence has forced aid groups to suspend operations. The United Nations World Food Program says three of its workers were killed.

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Destroyed airplanes at the Khartoum International Airport on Monday.Credit...Maxar Technologies, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

And on Monday, the U.N. envoy to Sudan, Volker Perthes, said gunmen had been looting and burning warehouses holding critically needed aid, as well guesthouses and offices of agencies like the World Food Program and UNICEF.

António Guterres, the U.N. secretary general, said he had spoken with both warring generals and expressed deep concern. “The humanitarian situation in Sudan was already precarious and is now catastrophic,” he said.

The American secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, called for an immediate cease-fire, and spoke separately with General Hamdan and General al-Burhan to underscore “the urgency of reaching a cease-fire,” Vedant Patel, a State Department spokesman, said in a statement.

“The secretary expressed his grave concern about the death and injury of so many Sudanese civilians due to the sustained, indiscriminate fighting, and stressed the responsibility of the two generals to ensure the safety and well-being of civilians, diplomatic personnel, and humanitarian workers,” Mr. Patel said.

General Hamdan said on Twitter that he was “honored to have a vital conversation” with Mr. Blinken and had discussed their “shared dedication to freedom, justice and democracy for our people.”

For now, however, even the much more modest goal of a cease-fire appears elusive.

Mr. Perthes said that he was talking to the leaders of both military factions daily, and that they had made it clear that they had no intention of ending the fighting. They are, however, receptive to the idea of a “pause” to allow humanitarian access, he said.

Although the toll on civilians has been most evident in Khartoum, aid workers say they are also concerned by the situation outside the capital, and especially in the western Darfur region.

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A vehicle belonging to the Rapid Support Forces in Khartoum on Monday.Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Save the Children, an aid organization, said on Monday that looters had stolen medical supplies for children, as well as a refrigerator, laptops and cars in a raid on one of its offices in Darfur. The group’s Sudan director, Arshad Malik, called on the combatants to safeguard humanitarian services.

“For the past three days,” he said in a statement, “people across Sudan have been gripped by fear, not knowing if it is safe to leave their homes, and now having to make the choice between facing that fear and starving to death.”

Cyrus Paye, a coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in North Darfur, said in a statement that most of the wounded there were “civilians who were caught in the crossfire — among them are many children.”

He painted a dire picture of the conditions for medical workers.

“The hospital is rapidly running out of medical supplies to treat survivors,” Mr. Paye said. “It is running out of medicines and blood. There has also been a power outage in the city since the beginning of the fighting, and fuel supplies for the hospital generator are also running low.”

The Central Committee for Sudanese Doctors said that more than a dozen hospitals had been forced to close. “Hospitals in Sudan are under bombardment,” the group said.

American diplomats are sheltering in place, and a White House spokesman said that “all U.S. government personnel are accounted for.”

But Western officials reported that the European Union ambassador to Sudan, Aidan O’Hara, had been assaulted at his home in Khartoum after armed men broke in, threatened him at gunpoint and stole money.

The assailants were members of the Rapid Support Forces paramilitaries, identified by their uniforms, several officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“This constitutes a gross violation of the Vienna Convention,” Josep Borrell Fontelles, the top diplomat for the bloc, said on Twitter. “Security of diplomatic premises and staff is a primary responsibility of Sudanese authorities and an obligation under international law.”

The U.N. spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, said that gunmen were forcing staff members out of their apartments in Khartoum and then operating out of them.

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A satellite image showing destroyed fuel trucks at a fuel depot in Khartoum on Monday.Credit...Maxar Technologies, via Reuters

With concern growing that the conflict may entangle other nations, observers were paying close attention to Egypt, which has enmeshed itself deeply into the affairs of its neighbor.

Since 2019, when pro-democracy protesters forced Sudan’s autocratic president to step down, Egypt has been eager to keep a civilian-led democracy from taking root on its southern doorstep, analysts have said. Ruled by a military-backed government that came to power after its own antigovernment uprising in 2011, Egypt has sought to replicate similar leadership in Sudan.

Egyptian officials see a strongman as the best way of keeping its neighbor stable — and off a democratic path that could inspire Egyptians — and they have embraced General al-Burhan as an ally, especially after one Rapid Support Forces faction captured Egyptian soldiers and seven Egyptian warplanes over the weekend.

The fighting has made transit in and out of the country difficult. At the main airport in Khartoum, airplanes were targeted again on Monday as the rival military factions fought for control over critical infrastructure.

The New York Times, using satellite imagery, has identified 20 planes that have been destroyed or badly damaged at the airport since the conflict erupted.

On Monday evening, residents of the city of Omdurman, northwest of the capital, said the situation was quiet, with many people coming out of their homes and traffic gradually building in some shopping areas. Many households, however, still lacked water or electricity.

In the capital, many residents found it safest to stay home. Mr. Abuhurira, the electrical engineer who went out to charge his phone, said that in the half-hour he spent on the street, he encountered almost no one.

The few people he did run across, he said, looked “like a zombie — without a soul or spirit.”

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An abandoned street market in Khartoum on Monday.Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Reporting was contributed by Vivian Yee from Cairo, Farnaz Fassihi and Christoph Koettl from New York and Edward Wong from Karuizawa, Japan.

Declan WalshElian Peltier
April 17, 2023, 7:17 p.m. ET

The European Union’s ambassador to Sudan was assaulted in his home.

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The European Union’s ambassador to Sudan, Aidan O’Hara, bottom left, at a ceremony of an initial deal between military and civilian leaders, in Khartoum, Sudan, in December.Credit...Ashraf Shazly/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Members of the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group assaulted the European Union’s ambassador to Sudan, Aidan O’Hara, in his residence in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, on Monday afternoon, according to two Western officials.

Mr. O’Hara, a diplomat from Ireland, was not injured after armed men broke in, threatened him at gunpoint and stole money, the officials said on condition of anonymity for security reasons. The assailants were identified by their uniforms and because the group controlled the nearby streets, the officials said.

A spokeswoman for the European Union said in a text message that Mr. O’Hara was doing “fine.” She did not immediately provide more details.

The assault was an indication of how much the security situation had devolved in Sudan. Residents across the country were hiding in their homes, fearing for their safety.

It appeared to not stop with Mr. O’Hara. Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for the United Nations, said that gunmen were forcing U.N. staff members out of their residential apartments in Khartoum to use them for operations.

The E.U.’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell Fontelles, said on Twitter that the assault “constitutes a gross violation of the Vienna Convention.”

“Security of diplomatic premises and staff is a primary responsibility of Sudanese authorities and an obligation under international law,” he said.

U.S. Embassy officials in Sudan were sheltering in place amid the escalating violence, said John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council.

“All U.S. government personnel are accounted for,” he said.

Michael D. Shear contributed reporting.

Where fighting has been reported

Khartoum, the capital

NORTH

KHARTOUM

OMDURMAN

Nile River

“We can feel the windows

and doors shaking,”

a resident said

Bridges over the

Nile are a key focus

Major battle

near Kober

prison

State

broadcaster

Clashes along

Nile Street

Nile Street

Presidential

palace

Artillery barrages and

heavy fighting for

military headquarters

White Nile River

Airport

KHARTOUM

Soba military camp

2 miles

NORTH

KHARTOUM

OMDURMAN

Nile River

“We can feel the windows

and doors shaking,”

a resident said

Bridges over the

Nile are a key focus

Major battle near

Kober prison

State

broadcaster

Presidential

palace

Artillery barrages

and heavy fighting

for military

headquarters

Airport

White Nile River

KHARTOUM

Soba military camp

2 miles

Across the country

EGYPT

LIBYA

Red Sea

Nile River

Port Sudan

Meroe

Darfur

CHAD

SUDAN

Khartoum

Violence spread

to the Darfur region

Kassala

Jebel Aulia

Qadarif

El Fasher

El Geneina

El Obeid

Zalingei

West

Darfur

Nyala

Ad-Damazin

ETHIOPIA

SOUTH SUDAN

200 miles

EGYPT

Red Sea

SUDAN

Port Sudan

Meroe

Khartoum

Violence spread

to the Darfur region

Kassala

Jebel Aulia

El Geneina

El Fasher

Qadarif

El Obeid

Zalingei

Nyala

Ad-Damazin

ETHIOPIA

SOUTH SUDAN

200 miles

Source: The New York Times reporting (locations of fighting), OpenStreetMap (base map), Sentinel-2 ESRI (built areas)

The New York Times

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Abdi Latif Dahir
April 17, 2023, 7:01 p.m. ET

Reporting from Nairobi, Kenya

Many in war-ravaged Darfur are watching in fear as a new wave of violence spreads across Sudan.

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A camp for the displaced in El Geneina, West Darfur, last year.Credit...Faiz Abubakar Muhamed for The New York Times

For years, the two generals fighting for power in Sudan banded together to oppress those living in the western region of Darfur. On horseback and helicopters, they rallied their troops to sweep into villages, torch homes and wipe out entire families — in a wave of genocidal violence that, between 2003 and 2008, left 300,000 people dead and 2.5 million others displaced.

Now, as they bring their battle to the capital, Khartoum, and other major cities, those they uprooted and tortured in Darfur are watching as a new wave of violence spreads across the country.

“I am deeply concerned about these clashes,” said Hafiz Haroun, 29, whose family had to flee their village near El Fasher in North Darfur in 2005, settling in the sprawling Naivasha Camp in North Darfur. “They want to turn our lives into hell.”

When the violence in Darfur began, the head of the army, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, was the inspector general of the armed forces and served as a regional army commander in the region. His former ally and current nemesis, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, was a commander of the Janjaweed militia, which perpetrated some of the worst attacks in the region before fashioning itself into a powerful paramilitary force under the longtime dictator Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

But even after Mr. al-Bashir was ousted in a popular uprising in 2019, things didn’t improve for those in Darfur. The entire region continued to endure ethnically motivated attacks, including some carried out by General Hamdan’s own men. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes in the last few years, with thousands of them fleeing to neighboring Chad as late as last month.

On Monday, Mr. Haroun said he was worried that the fighting would mean a new wave of violence in Darfur by R.S.F. soldiers and other rebel groups. Members of his family were scattered in both El Fasher city and in displacement camps across Darfur, and clashes have been reported across the region since the onset of the fighting on Saturday.

Mr. Haroun, who left Sudan last week to travel to Kenya on business, said his family members told him about widespread looting and killings and hospitals being out of service in El Fasher.

“If these battles continue, Sudan will certainly enter into a comprehensive civil war,” he said.

Elian PeltierAbdi Latif Dahir
April 17, 2023, 6:31 p.m. ET

Who are the Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitaries fighting Sudan’s Army?

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Members of the Rapid Support Forces in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, in 2019.Credit...Yasuyoshi Chiba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The Sudanese Army and a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces were once aligned. The R.S.F. fought on behalf of the Sudanese Army, until its outgrown influence and the ambitions of its leader, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, put the two sides in direct confrontation.

Here is a look at the paramilitary group:

Who are the Rapid Support Forces?

The Rapid Support Forces can trace its origins to the notorious Janjaweed militias, which in the 2000s helped Sudan’s Army crush a rebellion in the western region of Darfur. While the military had an air force and heavy weapons, the Janjaweed provided on-the-ground fighters in isolated areas.

An estimated 300,000 people were killed in the conflict between 2003 and 2008, and 2.5 million more were displaced, according to the United Nations. The International Criminal Court opened investigations into the genocidal violence, indicting Sudan’s longtime dictator, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in 2009.

Mr. al-Bashir was adamant about giving the group an institutional veneer, and in 2013, it became the R.S.F., with members first deployed as border guards, then as mercenaries for a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.

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Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, dressed in military fatigues, greets his supporters near Khartoum, Sudan, in 2019.Credit...Umit Bektas/Reuters

Who is the R.S.F. leader, General Hamdan?

Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, mostly known as Hemeti, is a former Janjaweed leader who was once backed by Mr. al-Bashir, but who eventually helped oust him following a popular uprising in 2019.

In 2021, General Hamdan and the army chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, staged another coup, and, until Saturday, the two had been sharing power.

As General Hamdan’s influence grew, along with his aspirations to lead the country, the two generals became enemies. The military had pushed to integrate the R.S.F. into its ranks, but the paramilitary group resisted.

How large is the R.S.F.?

Experts and Western officials estimate the R.S.F. to number between 70,000 and 150,000 fighters. Its members include former military and intelligence officers, according to Roland Marchal, a sociologist at Sciences Po University in Paris and an expert on civil wars in Africa.

In recent months, General Hamdan has recruited more fighters from the country’s east and north in an attempt to widen his support base, according to Mr. Marchal.

He has also deepened his connection to foreign powers, visiting Russia at the beginning of the war on Ukraine, partnering with the Wagner mercenary group to dig for gold in Sudan, and deploying troops in Yemen, to serve the interests of Saudi Arabia, and in Libya, for the United Arab Emirates.

Still, the R.S.F. lacks the firepower of the military. The group doesn’t have planes, for instance. And while R.S.F. fighters are used to operating in rural areas, they are not as well-trained for combat in cities like Khartoum, according to Mr. Marchal.

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Farnaz Fassihi
April 17, 2023, 5:44 p.m. ET

U.N. halts most aid operations in Sudan as fighting forces its workers to take shelter.

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People queued for bread outside a bakery amid a food crisis in the south of Khartoum, Sudan, on Monday.Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The United Nations said on Monday that it had temporarily halted most of its 250 humanitarian aid programs in Sudan, where a sprawling conflict between rival military factions had led to the death of three of its staff members.

Gunmen have also looted warehouses used by humanitarian programs while offices and vehicles belonging to U.N. agencies had also been damaged, according to Volker Perthes, the U.N.’s special envoy to Sudan.

In a grim assessment delivered in a virtual briefing from Khartoum with reporters at the United Nations, Mr. Perthes said 180 civilians had been killed and about 18,000, including militants and civilians, had been injured. The fighting had continued nearly uninterrupted since Saturday and the situation was fluid and unpredictable, said Mr. Perthes who added that he could not assess which side had the upper hand or controlled key sites, like the capital’s main airport or military installations.

“We cannot deliver when our staff is attacked, when they are thrown out of their offices and their offices are destroyed and looted,” Mr. Perthes said. He said the affected agencies included the World Food Program, which employed the three slain workers, and UNICEF, the global body’s agency for children.

Mr. Perthes, who also heads the U.N.’s Integrated Transitional Assistance Mission to Sudan, said he was in regular contact daily with the leaders of both warring military factions and that they blamed one another for the attacks on humanitarian aid agencies and civilians.

Both sides, he said, had indicated that they had no intention to stop fighting and were not interested in international or U.N. mediation for peace talks.

Sudan was already facing a dire humanitarian crisis before the fighting began on Saturday. A third of Sudan’s population — about 16 million people — relied on daily humanitarian aid delivery, from food to hygiene, according to the U.N.

But the violence has made it “nearly impossible” for the U.N. to do its work, according to U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric. Its 4,000 staff members — mostly Sudanese, but also about 800 workers from other countries — were hunkered down at home or in shelters, unable to move or do their work, he said.

Further hindering aid workers was damage to an airplane belonging to the U.N.’s humanitarian agency, which was caught in crossfire while parked on the runway at Khartoum airport, Mr. Dujarric said. The plane was critical to the U.N.’s ability to deliver aid to remote areas in Sudan where it is most needed, he said.

Mr. Dujarric said the U.N.’s view on the rapid unraveling of violence in Sudan was “one of shock, of tragic disappointment in the sense that we’re going backwards on the political transition.”

Mr. Perthes said the U.N. was focused primarily on negotiating short humanitarian windows for aid delivery and safe movement of civilians to shelters and hospitals. The generals on either side — Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the military commander and de facto ruler of Sudan, and Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, the leader of the rival paramilitary force Rapid Support Forces — were receptive to such pauses in the fighting, even though they seemed to have no intention to stop fighting until one side was either disbanded or surrendered.

Mr. Perthes briefed the 15-member Security Council in a closed session on Monday morning and he said he urged them to use their leverage, with either or both warring factions, to press for an end to hostilities and negotiations.

In a separate statement, the U.N.’s top humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, said he was alarmed by reports of hospitals, water and electrical infrastructure coming under attack and horrified by the killing of the three staff members of the World Food Program.

Mr. Griffiths said the impact of the U.N.’s aid suspension “will be felt immediately, especially in the areas of food security and nutritional support, in a country where some 4 million children and pregnant and lactating women are severely malnourished.”

Farnaz Fassihi
April 17, 2023, 5:23 p.m. ET

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said the Security Council must demand an immediate end to the fighting. “There will and must be accountability for anyone – including military or political actors – who attempts to undermine or delay Sudan’s democratic progress,” she said. “So, I’m asking the security forces as directly as I can: Put down the guns and start talking.”

Declan Walsh
April 17, 2023, 5:21 p.m. ET

Reporting from Nairobi, Kenya

Aidan O’Hara, the European Union ambassador to Sudan, was assaulted in his residence in Khartoum on Monday by members of the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, according to two Western officials. The assailants were identified by their uniforms and because the group controlled the nearby streets, the officials said. O'Hara, a diplomat from Ireland, was not injured in the attack, in which armed men broke in, threatened him at gunpoint and stole money, the officials said.

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Michael D. Shear
April 17, 2023, 4:48 p.m. ET

U.S. Embassy officials are sheltering in place in Sudan amid escalating violence there, said John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council. “All U.S. government personnel are accounted for,” he said.

Elian Peltier
April 17, 2023, 4:44 p.m. ET

More than a dozen hospitals in Sudan have been forced to shut down, according to the Central Committee for Sudanese Doctors. The group said on Facebook that several of the medical facilities had been bombed and evacuated, with even more facing shortages of doctors and medical supplies. “Hospitals in Sudan are under bombardment,” the group said.

Vivian Yee
April 17, 2023, 4:37 p.m. ET

Egypt had sought an ally in Sudan, but risks being drawn into a violent conflict.

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Sudanese and Egyptian armed forces at a joint military drill in Sudan’s Kordofan state in 2021.Credit...Ashraf Shazly/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

CAIRO — Since pro-democracy protesters forced Sudan’s autocratic president to step down in 2019, neighboring Egypt has been eager to keep a new civilian-led democracy from taking root on its southern doorstep.

Ruled by a military-backed government that came to power after its own anti-government uprising in 2011, Egypt has sought to replicate similar leadership in Sudan, seeing a strongman as the best way of keeping its neighbor stable — and off a path to a democracy that could inspire Egyptians. Egypt’s armed forces have offered Sudan’s generals military cooperation, while its diplomats and security officials pushed for talks that Sudanese civilian leaders said would derail a democratic transition entirely.

The desire for a like-minded partner has led Egypt to embrace General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, one of the two combatants in Sudan’s current clashes. The general, who heads the military-led Sovereignty Council that seized power in 2021, has met several times with top Egyptian officials, including President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. In December, Mr. el-Sisi told the general he had Egypt’s “full support for the Sovereignty Council’s efforts to achieve political stability and security in Sudan.”

By supporting the status quo in Sudan, analysts say, Egypt also hopes to gain an ally in its standoff with Ethiopia, the next country to the south, over a giant Ethiopian-built dam on the Nile that threatens Egypt’s precious water resources. The Nile flows through Sudan on its way from Ethiopia to Egypt, and both Egypt and Ethiopia have worked to get Sudan on their side.

Aggressive posturing toward Ethiopia may help explain why Egyptian troops were stationed at a military base in Meroe, in northern Sudan, leaving them to be captured — along with several warplanes — by the Rapid Support Forces, which are fighting General al-Burhan’s soldiers.

Egyptian and Sudanese troops have conducted several joint military exercises in what some analysts see as a show of force toward Ethiopia, on which Egypt occasionally threatens to declare war over the construction of the dam.

An Egyptian military spokesman said the soldiers were there for another joint exercise, but that statement “raises more questions than it answers,” said Khalil al-Anani, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Arab Center who has studied the Egypt-Sudan relationship. He noted that the Egyptian military did not announce the exercise beforehand, as it usually does, and that it would hardly serve its purpose as a show of force toward Ethiopia if it was not publicized.

Either way, the soldiers’ presence has turned into a thorny problem for Egypt. Though the R.S.F. said it would work with Egypt to keep the soldiers safe and return them home, neither side has indicated when or how they would be transferred.

Egypt appeared to be trying to head off any potential public outcry over the fate of the troops. On Sunday, it temporarily blocked the websites of several news organizations, according to Egyptian activists. (They were unblocked by Monday morning.)

And prominent Egyptian commentators seemed more focused on how the clashes would affect the prospects of resolving the dispute around the dam, known as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

“The longer this situation goes on, the more it will affect you in Egypt,” Amr Adib, a popular talk show host, said on his broadcast on Sunday evening. “Instability in Sudan will affect the Egyptian state in many areas, not the least of which is the G.E.R.D.”

If Ethiopia took the opportunity to get involved in Sudan, others warned, Egypt would likely stand up for its interests.

“Egypt is expected to take a bold, decisive stand because our vital interests in this entire region are threatened,” Amre Moussa, a former Egyptian foreign minister, said on Twitter. “The possibility that Ethiopia might take advantage of the situation exacerbates the dam issue for us.”

But a brewing violent conflict on Egypt’s doorstep has repercussions for Cairo far beyond the dam, raising the possibility that it could face a migration crisis from Sudan or other spillover effects.

“A failed state on Egypt’s southern borders could create unimaginable problems for a country that’s already grappling with a severe economic crisis,” Dr. al-Anani said.

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Elian Peltier
April 17, 2023, 4:19 p.m. ET

The European Union's ambassador to Sudan, Aidan O’Hara, was assaulted in his residency in Khartoum on Monday afternoon, the E.U.’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell Fontelles, said on Twitter. It was not immediately clear who assaulted the ambassador, but a spokeswoman for the bloc said in a text message that he is doing “fine.” She did not immediately provide more details.

Declan Walsh
April 17, 2023, 3:46 p.m. ET

Reporting from Nairobi, Kenya

The fighting is wounding civilians outside the capital, aid workers say.

Although the impact of fighting on civilians is most evident in Khartoum, aid workers say they are equally concerned by the situation outside the capital, and especially in the western Darfur region.

Save the Children, an aid organization, said Monday that looters had stolen medical supplies for children as well as a refrigerator, laptops, and cars in a raid on one of its offices in Darfur. It has suspended most of its operations in Sudan.

The group’s Sudan director, Arshad Malik, called on all parties to protect humanitarian infrastructure and supplies.

“For the past three days, people across Sudan have been gripped by fear, not knowing if it is safe to leave their homes, and now having to make the choice between facing that fear and starving to death,” he said in a statement.

A United Nations official offered more detail about three Sudanese employees of the World Food Program who were killed in Kabkabiya in North Darfur on Saturday. After fighting erupted in the area, the aid workers took shelter in a camp controlled by the Sudanese military, the official said.

But it quickly came under attack from Rapid Support Forces paramilitaries who seized the camp, and the aid workers were killed in the fighting. The World Food Program has also halted its operations in Sudan, where one-third of the country’s 45 million residents were already in need of food aid before the military clashes erupted.

Cyrus Paye, the Doctors Without Borders project coordinator in El Fasher, North Darfur, said in a statement that the majority of the wounded there were “civilians who were caught in the crossfire — among them are many children.”

“The hospital is rapidly running out of medical supplies to treat survivors,” he added. “It is running out of medicines and blood. There has also been a power outage in the city since the beginning of the fighting, and fuel supplies for the hospital generator are also running low.”

Farnaz Fassihi contributed reporting.

Abdi Latif Dahir
April 17, 2023, 3:28 p.m. ET

Reporting from Nairobi, Kenya

Residents of Omdurman, a city located northwest of the capital Khartoum, said the situation remained quiet on Monday evening, with many people coming out of their homes and traffic gradually building in some shopping areas. However, many households in the area continued to have no water or electricity.

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Ang Li
April 17, 2023, 3:03 p.m. ET

In a video posted to social media, Tagreed Abdin, an architect based in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, called the ongoing fighting “ridiculous” as loud bangs could be heard in the background. Ms. Abdin said that the fighting has nothing to do with civilians, even though they are the ones caught in the middle of the violence. Her colleague, an Indian citizen, was killed in the fighting.

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Farnaz Fassihi
April 17, 2023, 1:58 p.m. ET

Volker Perthes, the United Nations envoy to Sudan, said gunmen have been looting, attacking and burning the warehouses, guesthouses and offices of U.N. aid agencies, including the World Food Program, Unicef and the United Nations Development Program. The attacks have made it nearly impossible for the U.N. to carry out aid relief operations, he said, adding that the situation is fluid and unpredictable.

Farnaz Fassihi
April 17, 2023, 2:25 p.m. ET

Mr. Perthes said the U.N. was not mediating or entertaining the idea of a return to political peace talks in Sudan, and the only focus was negotiating for a three-hour pause in the fighting for humanitarian access. He said he was talking to the leaders of both military factions daily, and while they were receptive to the idea of a humanitarian pause they had made it clear to him that they had no intention to end the fighting.

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Credit...Ashraf Shazly/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Christoph Koettl
April 17, 2023, 1:18 p.m. ET

20 planes have been damaged or destroyed at Khartoum’s airport.

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Destroyed military and civilian airplanes at the international airport in Khartoum on Monday.Credit...Maxar Technologies

Airplanes continued to be targeted at the main airport in Khartoum on Monday, as rival military factions fought for control over critical infrastructure in the Sudanese capital for a third day.

The New York Times has identified 20 planes that have been destroyed or badly damaged at the airport since the conflict erupted on Saturday. That includes two aircraft that were burning as of 1:52 p.m. local time Monday, based on satellite imagery.

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A plane on fire at the international airport in Khartoum on Monday afternoon.Credit...Planet Labs

One of the planes destroyed on Saturday belongs to the Ukrainian airline SkyUp, a company that was already dealing with disruption from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The passenger plane was damaged not long after it landed early Saturday from Saudi Arabia: Satellite images showed stairs still visible next to the plane’s burned out fuselage, although the plane’s passengers had safely disembarked, according to an incident report.

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A destroyed jet belonging to the Ukrainian carrier SkyUp at the airport on Monday.Credit...Maxar Technologies

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Farnaz Fassihi
April 17, 2023, 12:51 p.m. ET

The U.N. humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, said the fighting in Sudan has forced U.N. agencies and their partners to halt most of their roughly 250 programs across Sudan. Griffiths said he was disturbed by the widespread looting of aid supplies and damaging of humanitarian facilities in the country, where three workers from the U.N.’s World Food Program have been killed. The U.N. said the agency had no access into or out of the country as airports and borders are closed.

Farnaz Fassihi
April 17, 2023, 12:43 p.m. ET

The United Nations Security Council held a closed consultation meeting on the crisis in Sudan on Monday, with diplomats receiving a briefing from the U.N. special envoy in Khartoum, Volker Perthes.

Abdi Latif Dahir
April 17, 2023, 12:34 p.m. ET

Reporting from Nairobi, Kenya

The United Nations mission in Sudan and regional African bodies called for a humanitarian pause in the fighting on Monday afternoon to allow citizens to get supplies and seek medical care. Both factions had agreed to such a pause for three hours on Sunday, although fighting reportedly continued during the humanitarian window, and neither side immediately responded to Monday's request. Residents of the capital, Khartoum, continued to report intense gunfire on Monday evening.

Abdi Latif Dahir
April 17, 2023, 12:12 p.m. ET

Reporting from Nairobi, Kenya

‘The hospital turned into a battlefield’: Medical facilities come under attack.

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Smoke billows behind residential buildings in Khartoum on Monday, the third day of fighting between rival military factions in Sudan.Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Dozens of wounded civilians and military personnel had already overwhelmed the Police Hospital in Burri, a major medical center northeast of Khartoum, as intensifying gunfire between rival military factions blocked much-needed supplies like bandages, intravenous fluids and painkillers.

But early on Monday morning, the situation worsened, according to Musab Khojali, a doctor in the emergency unit. Members of the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, which is battling the Sudanese Army, began shelling the hospital, he said. Soon after, R.S.F. personnel barged inside, ordered newborn babies to be evacuated and began taking up positions inside the hospital.

“The hospital turned into battlefield,” Dr. Khojali said in a phone interview on Monday.

His account was corroborated by screenshots of messages from a WhatsApp group used by hospital staff members that were shared with The New York Times by Dr. Khojali and other doctors at the facility.

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The Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group in Khartoum, Sudan on Monday.Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

In the ensuing hours, Dr. Khojali said, hospital personnel evacuated all the patients, handed the babies over to their families, and shut the hospital — a devastating turn for a medical center that typically treats hundreds of people a day.

The facility was far from the only hospital to have come under attack since the fighting began on Saturday.

The Central Committee for Sudanese Doctors said that patients and medical workers at Al Shaab Teaching Hospital, a major health center in Khartoum, were evacuated on Monday afternoon after the facility came under heavy gunfire and shelling. At least four other hospitals in the capital and in El Obeid, a city in south-central Sudan, have also come under attack, the group said.

Health workers said that the latest clashes undermined an already fragile medical system that is suffering from years of neglect and underfunding. As fighting intensified on Monday, the doctors’ group urged both sides to stop the fighting and not target health facilities.

“We are doing anything we can to save as many people as possible,” Dr. Khojali said. “We already had a collapsed health system, and this crisis has just added a new burden.”

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Abdi Latif Dahir
April 17, 2023, 11:44 a.m. ET

Reporting from Nairobi, Kenya

Earlier today, residents said that clashes continued in the Darfur region of western Sudan, with residents reporting violence in the cities of Zalingei and Nyala. Abdelhadi Yagoub Abbaker, a resident of Nyala, said there was widespread looting of homes, businesses and offices for a second day, and that many civilians remained at home amid intense gunfire.

Abdi Latif Dahir
April 17, 2023, 11:45 a.m. ET

Reporting from Nairobi, Kenya

Adam Regal, a spokesman for the General Coordination for Refugees and Displaced in Darfur, an aid agency, said that clashes had also occurred in camps housing people displaced by decades of civil conflict in the region. There were numerous deaths and injuries, he said, adding: “The situation is very complicated and difficult.”

Edward WongFarnaz Fassihi
April 17, 2023, 11:40 a.m. ET

Blinken calls for a cease-fire as U.N. chief warns of a ‘catastrophic’ humanitarian situation.

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during the meeting of Group of 7 foreign ministers in Nagano, Japan, on Monday.Credit...Pool photo by Andrew Harnik

U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said on Monday there was a “shared deep concern” among the United States and its allies over the fighting in Sudan and called for an immediate cease-fire.

Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers in Japan, Mr. Blinken said the U.S. and its allies shared the view that the two rival generals vying for power — the army chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy, the paramilitary commander Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan — must “ensure the protection of civilians and noncombatants as well as people from third countries, including our personnel who are located in Sudan.”

Humanitarian and aid organizations, as well as regional leaders, also called for an end to the fighting. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development, an eight-nation regional bloc that Sudan belongs to, said on Sunday that it would dispatch the presidents of Kenya, Djibouti and South Sudan to mediate between the parties.

At least four humanitarian workers were killed and two others injured in an attack in Darfur, according to the International Rescue Committee, a nonprofit aid group that condemned the fighting.

“The killing of humanitarian workers and scores of Sudanese is unacceptable,” Kurt Tjossem, IRC Regional Vice President, East Africa, said in a statement on Monday. “The IRC calls upon all stakeholders to work without delay to address outstanding issues with a view to achieving a lasting, inclusive political peace.”

Britain’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, who joined Mr. Blinken in Japan for the meeting of representatives from the Group of 7 nations, also called for a return to talks “which seem to be heading in the direction of civilian government, and of course, that is the ultimate desired outcome.”

Discussion of the fighting also rose to the United Nations on Monday, as diplomats met to discuss the crises there and in Yemen.

“The humanitarian situation in Sudan was already precarious and is now catastrophic,” said António Guterres, secretary general of the United Nations. “I condemn the deaths and injuries to civilians and humanitarian workers and the targeting and looting of premises.”

Mr. Guterres said he has been speaking with the two Sudanese generals and actively engaged with leaders of the African Union and the Arab League to seek an end to the violence.

Abdi Latif Dahir
April 17, 2023, 11:06 a.m. ET

Reporting from Nairobi, Kenya

Residents of the capital hunker down and warily venture out.

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Smoke rising above buildings in Khartoum, Sudan, on Sunday.Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Ahmed Abuhurira had to charge his cellphone. The 28-year-old mechanical engineer hasn’t had electricity at his home in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, since the fighting began on Saturday.

Venturing from his home in the Arkaweet neighborhood in eastern Khartoum to a friend’s house, he made a half-hour walk through desolate and dangerous streets. The few people he encountered looked “like a zombie without a soul or spirit,” he said.

Since the fighting began, Mr. Abuhurira has been hunkered down with his father and brother in a home without electricity or water service. His mother, he said, is stuck in another neighborhood north of the capital.

“Everyone is afraid,” he said. “You can see it in their eyes. People are panicking.”

While Sudan has long been plagued by rebellions, coups and genocidal violence, Khartoum, a city of five million people, is comparatively unaccustomed to violence. Sudan’s wars have unfolded on the geographic and political peripheries of the vast African nation.

But now, its inhabitants are hearing gunfire on the ground and military aircraft overhead.

Residents said there was an escalation in the number of fighter jets and helicopters circling the city starting at about 3 a.m. local time Monday. Two people in an area close to the city’s international airport said the planes were circling every few minutes and getting very close to their homes.

“It’s like they are on top of our heads,” said Dallia Mohamed Abdelmoniem, a resident who was taking shelter with 10 people, including family members.

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Farnaz Fassihi
April 17, 2023, 11:05 a.m. ET

António Guterres, the U.N. secretary general, said that any further escalation of the fighting in Sudan could be devastating for the region and called the humanitarian situation in the country “catastrophic.” Mr. Guterres said he has been speaking with the two warring Sudanese generals and with leaders of the African Union and Arab League to call for an end to the violence.

Abdi Latif Dahir
April 17, 2023, 10:51 a.m. ET

Reporting from Nairobi, Kenya

As the third day of clashes unfolded across Sudan, it was still unclear who was in control of the country. Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, accused the army chief, General al-Burhan, of “bombing civilians from the air.”

Abdi Latif Dahir
April 17, 2023, 10:52 a.m. ET

Reporting from Nairobi, Kenya

The Sudanese Army said in a statement on Facebook that it was conducting “our battle as planned and were operating within the rules of conflict and international humanitarian law.”

Abdi Latif Dahir
April 17, 2023, 4:57 a.m. ET

Reporting from Nairobi, Kenya

Here are the latest developments in Sudan.

The forces of rival generals battling for control of Sudan clashed for a third day in the capital and other parts of the northeast African nation, leaving millions of residents hiding in their homes while doctors and hospitals, themselves under attack, struggled to cope with mounting casualties.

The civilian death toll from the fighting rose to at least 180 on Monday, with more than 1,800 civilians and combatants injured, according to Volker Perthes, the United Nations envoy to Sudan. With clashes reported across the vast nation, the exact toll is unclear.

The fighting has left many of the five million residents of the capital, Khartoum, stranded at home without electricity or water as they marked the last few days of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month when many fast daily from dawn until dusk.

Overwhelmed medical facilities have been targeted, including a major medical center northeast of Khartoum that was shelled, evacuated and shut down. More than a dozen hospitals have shuttered.

Even top international officials were unsafe in their homes. The European Union’s ambassador to Sudan, Aidan O’Hara, was assaulted in his residency in Khartoum on Monday afternoon, the E.U.’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell Fontelles, said on Twitter. It was not immediately known who attacked him, but a spokeswoman for the bloc said the ambassador was “fine.”

It was still not clear who — if anyone — was in control of the country. The clashes, which erupted on Saturday, have pitted a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces against the Sudanese Army, a longstanding rivalry between Sudan’s two top generals who have been vying for dominance.

Khartoum residents reported more fighter jets and helicopters circling the city starting early Monday morning, a sign of a key difference between the two sides: only the army has warplanes.

On Monday, the head of the R.S.F., Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, accused his rival, the army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, of “bombing civilians from the air.” The Sudanese Army said in a statement on Facebook that it was “operating within the rules of conflict and international humanitarian law.”

Here is what else to know:

  • Tensions between the generals had been simmering for months before rupturing into violent confrontations between their forces. Despite international calls for an end to the fighting, neither side has shown a willingness to engage in talks. On Monday, General Hamdan vowed: “We will continue to pursue al-Burhan and bring him to justice.”

  • Intense street fighting and blasts were reported on Monday in several sections of Khartoum, including in the upscale Riyadh neighborhood and the Burri suburb, residents said. In the Kafouri suburb north of Khartoum, one resident said that jets struck a camp belonging to the R.S.F. paramilitaries and that two major explosions also rocked the neighborhood, shattering windows and leaving the homes in the area shaking.

  • The fighting has worsened a humanitarian crisis in a nation where one-third of its 45 million people were in need of food aid even before the conflict began, according to the United Nations World Food Program. The organization suspended operations in the country after three of its workers were killed in Darfur and one of its planes was damaged at the airport in Khartoum. The Sudanese doctors’ group said that hospitals remained understaffed and were running low on supplies while the World Health Organization said that the insecurity in Khartoum was impeding medical workers and ambulances from reaching those in need of critical care.

  • For decades, Sudan has suffered under the yoke of dictatorship, coups and political instability, and it has struggled to shake off its troubled history even after the longtime autocrat Omar Hassan al-Bashir was ousted in 2019. Over the past few years, generals have steadily tightened their grip on the nation, killing and jailing civilians and repeatedly scuttling any attempt to transition to democratic rule.

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Isabella KwaiDeclan Walsh
April 16, 2023, 12:37 p.m. ET

Sudan’s army is more accustomed to fighting on the country’s edges, not in the capital.

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A policeman in 2011 in Abyei, a dividing line between northern and southern Sudan that was the site of a long-running standoff.Credit...Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

In a country long plagued by rebellions, coups and genocidal violence, the scenes of combat taking place in Sudan’s capital are notable because, until now, Sudan’s wars have unfolded on the geographic and political peripheries of the vast African nation.

For decades, Sudan’s military has waged brutal conflicts in the south, east and west of the country. That fighting led to the secession of South Sudan in 2011; an International Criminal Court determination that pro-government forces committed genocide in the western region of Darfur; the loss of land in a territorial dispute with neighboring Ethiopia; and monumental death, displacement and suffering.

Here is a look at some of the other conflicts Sudan’s army has fought in recent years:

South Sudanese civil war

A deadly struggle between secessionist fighters in the south and the government in Khartoum in the north consumed Sudan for decades, claiming more than two million lives. The two sides ultimately negotiated a peace agreement that split the country in 2011 after southerners voted in a referendum for South Sudan to become a new nation.

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Celebrations in Juba, Sudan, on the eve of independence for South Sudan in 2011.Credit...Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

Within South Sudan, infighting in the government led to clashes in 2013 and ultimately triggered a violent feud between the two biggest ethnic groups. That conflict officially ended in 2018, but Africa’s newest country remains fragile, faced with a humanitarian crisis that has millions of people struggling for food.

Genocide in Darfur

Ethnically motivated violence in Darfur has killed as many as 300,000 people since 2003, according to an estimate from the United Nations, with Arab militia groups destroying and terrorizing villages inhabited mainly by ethnic African communities.

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A demonstration in support of Omar al-Bashir after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest in 2009.Credit...Lynsey Addario for The New York Times

The atrocities, which began after ethnic minority rebels accused longtime President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of repression, led to his indictment by the I.C.C. for genocide. Mr. al-Bashir was ousted in a 2019 popular uprising that many Darfuris prayed would put an end to the violence. But the attacks against ethnic minorities in the region surged again last year, linked in part to upheaval in the central government.

One of main figures in Sudan’s current conflict, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, was a former commander of the feared Janjaweed militia group that carried out some of the worst atrocities against civilians in Darfur. General Hamdan is now head of the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group battling Sudan’s army.

Land dispute with Ethiopia

For over a century, Sudan and Ethiopia have been at odds over the lush border region of al-Fashaga, where farmers from both countries have shared land. The dispute intensified in late 2020 after fighting in the Tigray region of Ethiopia prompted Ethiopian soldiers presiding over al-Fashaga to leave. Sudanese troops then moved in to capture parts of the contested territory, ousting Ethiopian farmers in the process, according to aid groups. There have been exchanges of shelling across the contested zone, with some deaths. The fighting has since subsided, but the core dispute remains unresolved.

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Ethiopian refugees who fled the northwestern part of Tigray arrived in Hamdayet, Sudan, in 2020.Credit...Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

Aid groups have warned that any escalation of the dispute could draw in neighboring countries, such as Egypt and Eritrea.

Nuba Mountains conflict

Clashes between government forces and rebel Nuba fighters in Sudan’s South Kordofan State broke out in the aftermath of South Sudan’s secession, with Nuba fighters supporting South Sudan.

Many Nuba civilians fled their villages and sought refuge in mountain caves, and aid organizations reported food shortages, civilian deaths from government airstrikes and the displacement of thousands of people. A cease-fire was announced in 2016, but Nuba people in the region have since reported being targeted by paramilitary groups loyal to the government in Khartoum.

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Children hiding in caves in the Nuba Mountains, a region in rebellion against the Sudanese government in 2011.Credit...Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
Abdi Latif Dahir
April 15, 2023, 3:30 p.m. ET

The clashes in Sudan are occurring during the holiest days of Ramadan.

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A group of men gathered south of Khartoum, Sudan, on Saturday to break their fast as part of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.Credit...Ebrahim Hamid/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The fighting in Sudan between rival leaders in the armed forces erupted at a significant moment for its Muslim-majority population: the last 10 days of the holy month of Ramadan.

During Ramadan, Muslims abstain from food and water from dawn to dusk and engage in reading the Quran and helping the poor. The last 10 days are considered the holiest in the entire Islamic calendar, because they bookend the anniversary of the evening when the Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad. Because of that, Muslims double their efforts during those days by giving charity, studying religious texts and staying in mosques for longer periods as part of a practice known as itikaf.

On Saturday, the timing of the armed clashes in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, and other cities shocked many African leaders, who called on the rivals to put down their weapons and let citizens enjoy the holiest period of Ramadan.

Moussa Faki Mahamat, the chairman of the African Union Commission, called on both groups to “immediately stop the destruction of the country, the terrorization of its people, and the shedding of blood during the last 10 days of Ramadan.”

Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, said in a statement that “the clashes violate the ancient Sudanese norms and values because they come in the last days of the holy month of Ramadan.”

Kenya’s president, William Ruto, concurred, saying that all differences should be addressed through dialogue “for the sake of the security of the people of Sudan and stability in the country and the region, especially during this holy month of Ramadan.”

In Sudan, Ramadan is considered a joyous celebration, with families and friends coming together to share foods like samosas, dates, sweet tea and assida, a semolina-based flour dish. But for many Sudanese, this Ramadan comes during an arduous period, with the country facing food insecurity because of poor harvests, steep food prices and a spiraling economic crisis. More than 15 million people across the country are experiencing food shortages and rampant inflation, said Islamic Relief, the nongovernmental organization.

On Saturday evening, as the hour to break the fast got closer, gun battles in parts of the capital quieted, several witnesses said. Residents who were stuck in their homes all day then rushed out to buy bread, dates and watermelons to quench their hunger and thirst.

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Declan Walsh
April 15, 2023, 1:32 p.m. ET

Who is General Hamdan, the leader of the Rapid Support Forces?

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Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, at a 2019 rally in Abraq, Sudan.Credit...Yasuyoshi Chiba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

After starting as a camel trader who led a feared militia accused of atrocities in Darfur, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan has steadily amassed influence and riches in Sudan over the past two decades as he rose toward the pinnacle of power.

Even when his one-time patron, the autocratic ruler President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, was ousted by pro-democracy protesters in 2019, General Hamdan turned it to his advantage — swiftly abandoning Mr. al-Bashir and, in the past year, reinventing himself as a born-again democrat with aspirations to lead Sudan himself.

At the same time, he allied himself with Russia and its Wagner private military company, whose mercenaries guard gold mines in Sudan and which has supplied military equipment to his forces.

But General Hamdan faced perhaps his toughest challenge yet on Saturday, as fighting raged across the capital between his powerful paramilitary group and the Sudanese army under Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

“This man is a criminal,” General Hamdan said in an interview with Al Jazeera on Saturday, lashing out against General al-Burhan, the army chief who until Saturday was technically his boss and is now his mortal enemy.

“This man is a liar,” General Hamdan continued. “This man is a thief. He destroyed Sudan.”

The army hit back, with a spokesman disparaging General Hamdan a “rebel.” But the heated language brought home to many Sudanese that, despite his earlier talk about democracy, General Hamdan, a commander with a long record of ruthless action, was literally fighting for his future.

And it was a reminder of a depressing reality: Although protesters ousted the widely reviled Mr. al-Bashir in 2019, the military leaders who thrived in his brutal system of rule are still fighting to dominate the country.

General Hamdan cut his teeth as a commander with the janjaweed militias that carried out the worst atrocities in the western region of Darfur. The conflict, which began in 2003, displaced millions and caused the deaths of as many as 300,000 people.

His ability to crush local rebel groups won him the loyalty of Mr. al-Bashir, who in 2013 appointed him to lead the newly-created Rapid Support Forces.

After protesters flooded the streets of Khartoum in early 2019, roaring for Mr. al-Bashir’s ouster, General Hamdan turned on Mr. al-Bashir, helping to push him out of power.

But two months later, in June 2019, when protesters demanding an immediate transition to civilian rule refused to leave a protest site, General Hamdan’s Rapid Support Forces led a brutal assault.

His troops burned tents, raped women and killed dozens of people, dumping some of them in the Nile, according to numerous accounts from protesters and witnesses. At least 118 people were killed, according to Sudanese medics.

General Hamdan denied any role in the violence and bristled at those who referred to his fighters as janjaweed, despite the militia’s key role in his rise to power. “Janjaweed means a bandit who robs you on the road,” he told The New York Times. “It’s just propaganda from the opposition.”

Since then, the Rapid Support Forces has evolved into far more than a gun-toting rabble. With about 70,000 fighters by some estimates, the force has been deployed to quash insurgencies across Sudan and to fight for pay in Yemen as part of the Saudi-led coalition.

War also made General Hamdan very rich, with interests in gold mining, construction and even a limousine company.

He has also emerged as a surprisingly agile politician, traveling across the Horn of Africa region and the Middle East to meet with leaders and developing close ties with Moscow.

Abdi Latif Dahir
April 15, 2023, 10:39 a.m. ET

Who is Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of Sudan’s military?

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Sudan’s army chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, at a ceremony in Khartoum in December.Credit...El Tayeb Siddig/Reuters

One of the rival factions of the Sudanese armed forces fighting on Saturday is led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, a powerful military commander who has for years been a de facto leader of the African nation.

Little known before 2019, General al-Burhan rose to power in the tumultuous aftermath of the military-led coup that ousted Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the authoritarian leader who was deposed after popular uprisings in 2019.

Then the inspector general of the armed forces, he had also served as a regional army commander in Darfur, when 300,000 people were killed and millions of others displaced in fighting from 2003 to 2008.

General al-Burhan had been closely aligned with Mr. al-Bashir. But when Mr. al-Bashir was ousted, his defense minister, Lt. Gen. Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Auf, took over, pushing protesters to demand for his resignation. When General Ibn Auf stepped down, General al-Burhan replaced him, becoming the most powerful leader of the country in a tenuous transitional period. General al-Burhan then went on to progressively tighten his grip on Sudan.

After civilians and the military signed a power-sharing agreement in 2019, General al-Burhan became the chairman of the Sovereignty Council, a body that would oversee the country’s transition to democratic rule. But as the date for the handover of power to civilians got closer in late 2021, General al-Burhan seemed reluctant to hand over power.

As tensions rose, Jeffrey Feltman, the U.S. envoy to the Horn of Africa at the time, arrived in Sudan to talk with both sides. Despite his differences with the civilian side, Mr. al-Burhan gave no indication that he wanted to seize power.

But on Oct. 25, just hours after the U.S. envoy left, General al-Burhan detained Abdalla Hamdok, the prime minister at the time, in his own house, blocked the internet and seized power, effectively derailing the country’s transition to democratic rule.

Two weeks later, he also appointed himself the head of a new ruling body that he promised would deliver Sudan’s first free election. But that did not assuage opposition groups and civilian protesters, who continued to pour into the streets every week to demand his resignation and the end to military rule.

In December 2022, the military, represented by General al-Burhan, and a coalition of civilian pro-democracy groups, signed a preliminary agreement brokered by members of the international community to end the political standoff. But that deal did not satisfy the demands of some civilians who continued to protest, or his biggest rival, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, the leader of the Rapid Support Forces, a powerful paramilitary group.

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