Explosions and gunshots rock Khartoum in the early hours of Friday's Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of Ramadan.
Before sunrise, like every morning since April 15, gunfire and air raids rang out, witnesses report.
"
During the night (...) several districts of Khartoum were bombarded and are still the object of bombardments and clashes between the army and (the paramilitaries) of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)", affirmed
Friday morning the doctors' union.
However, on Thursday, diplomatic contacts had intensified: General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, head of the army and de facto leader of Sudan since the 2021 putsch, announced that he had been contacted by regional leaders - in particular southern - Sudanese or Ethiopian - and international - including UN boss Antonio Guterres and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
All had pleaded for an end to the fighting against the very feared paramilitaries of the FSR of General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, his number two since the putsch, for Eid al-Fitr, the festival traditionally celebrated for three days which marks the end of the fast of the Ramadan.
The RSF themselves announced "
their agreement for a 72-hour truce
" at 0400 GMT to give respite to the Sudanese still caught in the crossfire which has already claimed more than 330 lives.
But at the same time, General Burhane appeared for the first time since the start of hostilities on April 15 on state television.
He delivered an address to the nation on the occasion of Eid – as he had done so far as head of the transitional authorities and then after his putsch – without ever mentioning any truce.
“
Our country is bleeding
”
"
For Eid this year, our country is bleeding: destruction, desolation and the sound of bullets have taken precedence over joy
," he said.
“
We hope that we will come out of this ordeal more united (…) one army, one people (…) towards a civil power
”, he adds, seated at a desk in military uniform between two flags Sudanese.
The five million inhabitants of Khartoum, them, begin a seventh day under the din of air raids, explosions and street fights.
“
We would like the fighting to stop for Eid, but we know that will not happen
,” Abdallah, a resident of the capital, told AFP on Thursday.
Because then the belligerent declarations continued: General Burhane assured by telephone to a television that there would be no "
political discussions
" with his rival General Daglo, known as "
Hemedti
": either he stops "
wanting to control the country
or he will be "
crushed militarily
".
After a meeting with the President of the African Union and other international leaders, "
all convinced that a truce is urgent in Sudan
", the head of American diplomacy called on the two rival generals to try once again to negotiate a pause in the fighting, mainly concentrated in Khartoum and Darfur (west).
In the capital, many families have run out of food and no longer have electricity or running water.
Some hurry along the roads to flee, between FSR and General Burhane's army checkpoints and corpses strewn along the roadside.
Between 10,000 and 20,000 people, mostly women and children, have crossed into neighboring Chad, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).