The Sudanese capital was rocked by gunfire and explosions on Saturday night, after a day of bloody street battles, airstrikes and exchanged threats between the two generals in power in Sudan since a 2021 military coup.

In Khartoum, where most of the few civilians who went out yesterday morning ran home, plumes of thick smoke rose from army and paramilitary bases, as well as the international airport.

The fighting has killed at least 25 people and injured at least 183 others, according to the Sudanese Doctors Association, a non-governmental organization affiliated with the pro-democracy movement. It is unclear how many of the victims are civilians.

Earlier yesterday, the NGO spoke of three civilian deaths.

All day yesterday, calls to the opposing sides to cease fire followed one another: from the UN, from Washington, from Moscow, from Rome, from Riyadh, from the African Union, from the Arab League, from the European Union, by the former prime minister of the transitional government Abdullah Hamdok…

In vain.

Today, the Arab League hastily organized an emergency meeting on Sudan at the request of Cairo, where the organization is based, and Riyadh. These are allied states of the Sudanese army, which has been involved in a conflict with the paramilitaries; the latter seek to overthrow him, now they want to take power.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres held talks with the leaders of the two sides, the head of the armed forces General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the head of the paramilitaries, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, as well as with the president of Egypt Abdel Fattah al-Sisi , and demanded “an immediate cessation of violence”.

But the paramilitaries seem adamant. They will not stop until they take “control of all military bases,” their leader, General Daglo, or “Khameti,” said to Al Jazeera’s camera.

Last night, appearing on the United Arab Emirates television network, Sky News Arabia, he reiterated that he was “forced” to take action. “We didn’t start this,” he snapped. “Burhan, this criminal, must be surrendered,” he added as gunfire rang out around him.

“We know where you are hiding and we will come to catch you and bring you to justice or kill you like a dog,” he said.

The Rapid Support Force (RSF), made up of thousands of paramilitaries who served in the Darfur war before becoming auxiliaries to the army, claimed to have captured the international airport and the presidential palace. The military denied.

General Burhan, for his part, has not appeared in public since yesterday morning; however, he emphasized in a statement that he was “captured at nine o’clock in the morning” when the DTY attacked his headquarters. Now the army describes General Burhan’s best ally until recently as a “foreign-backed paramilitary group” for committing “treason”.

The army uploaded on Facebook an “arrest warrant” for Hameti: “This fugitive criminal is wanted by justice,” it said, while in another press release it announced the “dissolution” of the DTY, calling on its members to surrender to the authorities.

The army launched airstrikes to “destroy” DTY bases in Khartoum. As for the calls for the two sides to return to the negotiating table: “Impossible before the dissolution of the DTY”, according to the same source.

The Rapid Support Forces, for their part, are calling on the country’s 45 million citizens, including members of the army, to “join them”, to turn against General Burhan’s forces.

Residents remain locked in their homes. “I started to go to work in the morning but I heard gunfire and returned home,” explained Bakri, 24.

The two rival camps are fighting for control of the state media building facilities, according to eyewitnesses.

The air force urged citizens to stay at home as it would operate on Saturday night, while a public holiday was declared in Khartoum state today, meaning schools, banks and public services will not be open.

Burning of a Saudi passenger plane

When the October 2021 military coup took place, Generals Hameti and Burhan allied to overthrow the civilian-led transitional government. But over time, the former began to denounce the coup.

He recently went so far as to side with the civilians – in other words against the military – in negotiations to form a new transitional government, leading to deadlocked talks and repeated postponements of any deal to exit the crisis.

For days, the streets were buzzing that the situation was heading for a conflict between the army and the DTY, as convoys of armored vehicles of the latter converged on Khartoum.

The DTY is said by some sources to be carrying out a plan by elements loyal to Sudan’s one-time dictator Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who was toppled by his generals in 2019 amid a popular uprising against his regime.

The army denied taking over the airport, but accused the DTY of “set fire to civilian aircraft, including one of Saudi Airlines”. The company confirmed.

The carrier then said it was suspending flights to and from Sudan. Egypt’s public airline, Egyptair, announced on its part that it is suspending flights to Khartoum for at least 72 hours.

According to Sudanese state media videos, at least one UN aircraft was destroyed at Khartoum airport.

In the meantime, a video uploaded yesterday by DTY on Twitter shows uniformed soldiers, who are presented as “Egyptian soldiers who surrendered together with Sudanese soldiers”, at the Marouia base (Meroi, north).

A spokesman for Egypt’s military said Cairo was “monitoring the situation”, confirming “the presence of Egyptian forces” on Sudanese territory for “training exercises”.

“They are safe and we will deliver them to Egypt,” Hameti told Sky News Arabia.

The two generals made the decision to clash as Sudanese politicians and the international community pressured them in recent days to sign a political agreement to restart Sudan’s transition to democracy.

Chad has announced that it is closing its border with Sudan.