Explosions and fire shook Khartoum in the early hours today, the first day of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of Ramadan. despite UN hopes for a ceasefire.

Before dawn, as every morning since April 15, gunfire and airstrikes were heard in the Sudanese capital.

“At night (…) many districts of Khartoum were bombed and are still being bombed while clashes are raging between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF-DTY),” the doctors’ union said this morning.

Yesterday Thursday diplomatic contacts intensified: General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the army and Sudan’s de facto leader after the 2021 coup, announced that he had spoken with regional leaders – mainly South Sudan and Ethiopia – and international, such as the head of the UN Antonio Guterres and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

All of them called for an end to the fighting against the notorious DTY of General Mohamed Hamdan Dagallo, the country’s second in command after the coup, ahead of the three-day Eid al-Fitr.

The DTY themselves announced earlier today that they “agree to a 72-hour ceasefire”, starting at 06:00 (local time, 07:00 Greek time), in order to “open humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians and to give them the chance to be reunited with their families.”

The DTY said they took action in “legitimate defense” to repel an attempted “coup”, as they described it, and added that they were committed to an “absolute ceasefire” from today.

So far more than 350 people have been killed in the clashes.

At the same time, General Burhan appeared for the first time since the start of hostilities, on April 15, on state television. He addressed the nation on the occasion of Eid, as he always did as head of the transitional authorities, without mentioning a ceasefire.

“Our country is bleeding”

“For Eid this year, our country is bleeding: destruction, desolation and the sound of bullets have won over joy,” he pointed out. “We hope that we will come out of this ordeal more united (…) with an army, a people (…) towards a political power,” added al-Burhan, sitting at a desk, wearing a military uniform, between two Sudanese flags .

Khartoum’s five million residents woke up today for the seventh day to the sound of airstrikes, explosions and clashes.

“We wish the fighting would stop for Eid, but we know that won’t happen,” said Abtnala, a resident of the capital.

General al-Burhan assured in his telephone communication with a television network that “I will not have a political discussion” with his rival General Dagalo, also known as Hemedi. Either he will stop “desiring to control the country”, or he will “be crushed militarily”.

After talks with the president of the African Union and other international leaders, “we are all convinced that it is urgent to declare a ceasefire in Sudan,” Blinken said, calling on the opposing generals to try once more to negotiate a truce.

The fighting is centered in Khartoum and Darfur.

In the capital, where residents now live without running water and electricity, many families are trying to leave, passing through security and regular army checkpoints, while bodies lie on the roadside.

American military

Between 10,000 and 20,000 people, mostly women and children, have crossed into neighboring Chad in the past week, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The two warring sides regularly declare victories and launch accusations against their opponents, claims that are impossible to independently confirm.

The air force, which targets bases and DTY positions scattered in populated areas, does not hesitate to sometimes drop bombs on hospitals as well, complain doctors.

“70% of hospitals in Khartoum and areas where fighting is raging are out of order,” according to their union. Moreover, those that continue to operate no longer have medical equipment, while others have been taken over by militants, driving out doctors and patients.

Aid organizations have been forced to suspend their activities, critical in a country where more than one in three people suffer from hunger under normal conditions.

Three World Food Program (WFP) workers were killed in Darfur at the start of the conflict.

Amid widespread chaos, Egypt managed, with the mediation of the United Arab Emirates, to remove “177 of its soldiers” stationed at an airbase in northern Sudan. And 27 others, who had been captured by the paramilitaries, were handed over to the Red Cross and are at the embassy in Khartoum, according to the Egyptian military.

Yesterday, the US announced that it had sent military personnel to the area to facilitate the removal of personnel from the US embassy.