Daily Trust Saturday

Sombre mood for Eid in Sudan

Fighting continues in Khartoum despite truce

- (BBC/Aljazeera)

Residents of Sudan’s capital have said parts of Khartoum feel like a ghost town in contrast to the joyful mood usually seen during the Muslim holiday of Eid-elFitr.

After a week of fighting between two factions of the country’s military leadership, at least 400 people have been killed.

Witnesses said bombing, shelling and gunfire continued in Khartoum.

This means that a three-day truce called by the United Nations (UN), United States and others has failed.

A Sudanese employee of the UN’s Internatio­nal Organisati­on for Migration was killed in a crossfire in El Obeid, some 430km (270 miles) southwest of Khartoum, the agency said.

Witnesses told AFP news agency that they were seeing intense street battles between the rival forces in Khartoum.

The army said it had deployed soldiers to comb the streets, looking for members of the rival paramilita­ry Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

People in Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman told BBC that they were still feeling a mixture of shock and anger.

Recall that Sudan’s army declares a three-day ceasefire during the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr, hours after the RSF said it was ready for a 72-hour ceasefire. Witnesses say fighting continued in the capital, Khartoum, after the army announceme­nt.

Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, reporting from Khartoum, has said that residents around the capital reported continues artillery strikes in the northern part of the city.

“Residents say there is intense fighting and direct confrontat­ions between the army and the RSF in the southern part of the capital,” she said.

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