Armed fighters rampaged through a city in Sudan’s war-ravaged region of Darfur on Thursday, battling each other and looting shops and homes, residents said. The violence came despite the extension of a fragile truce between Sudan’s two top generals, whose power struggle has killed hundreds.
The mayhem in the Darfur city of Genena pointed to how the rival generals’ fight for control in the capital, Khartoum, was spiraling into violence in other parts of Sudan.
The cease-fire has brought a significant easing of fighting in Khartoum and its neighboring city Omdurman for the first time since the military and a rival paramilitary force began clashing on April 15, turning residential neighborhoods into battlegrounds.
Both the military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, led by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, said that they accepted the extension of the truce. But explosions and heavy gunfire could be heard in at least one Khartoum neighborhood late Thursday.
The U.S. State Department released a statement welcoming the cease-fire and the two sides’ "readiness to engage in dialogue toward establishing a more durable cessation of hostilities and ensuring unimpeded humanitarian access."
The joint statement named a wide array of mediators, including the African Union, an eight-nation East Africa bloc, the U.N., Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the U.K. and the U.S. It highlighted the breadth of international peace efforts, which have thus far failed to end the fighting.
The White House meanwhile encouraged Americans to take advantage of any opportunity to leave Sudan in the next 24 to 48 hours, even as Washington has faced criticism for not mounting the kind of mass evacuation of its citizens already carried out by other nations.
"We are working continuously to create options for American citizens to leave Sudan," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, warning that the "situation could deteriorate at any moment."
A U.S. defense official said three U.S. Navy vessels were approaching the Sudanese coast but none had received orders as yet to pick up citizens or other personnel. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing military operations.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly urged U.K. nationals who want to leave to get to an airfield north of Khartoum for evacuation flights. "The situation could deteriorate over the coming days," he warned. Britain said it has evacuated 897 people on eight flights to Cyprus, with operations continuing.
The fighting has continued in some parts of the capital despite the truce, and in the western region of Darfur, residents said the violence had escalated to its worst yet.
Darfur has been a battleground between the military and the paramilitary RSF since the conflict began nearly two weeks ago. Residents said the fighting in Genena was now dragging in tribal militias, tapping into longtime hatreds between the region’s two main communities — one that identifies as Arab, the other as East or Central African.
In the early 2000s, African tribes in Darfur that had long complained of discrimination rebelled against the Khartoum government, which responded with a military campaign that the International Criminal Court later said amounted to genocide. State-backed Arab militias known as the Janjaweed were accused of widespread killings, rapes and other atrocities. The Janjaweed later evolved into the RSF.
Early Thursday, fighters who mostly wore RSF uniforms attacked several neighborhoods across Genena, driving many families from their homes. The violence spiraled as tribal fighters joining the fray in Genena, a city of around half a million people located near the border with Chad.
"The attacks come from all directions," said Amany, a Genena resident who asked to withhold her family name for her safety. "All are fleeing."
It was often unclear who was fighting whom, with a mix of RSF and tribal militias — some allies of the RSF, some opponents — all running rampant. The military has largely withdrawn to its barracks, staying out of the clashes, and residents were taking up arms to defend themselves, said Dr. Salah Tour, a board member of the Doctors’ Syndicate in the West Darfur province, of which Genena is the capital.
The syndicate estimated that dozens of people were killed and hundreds wounded. Almost all of Genena’s medical facilities, including its main hospital, have been out of service for days, and the sole functioning hospital is inaccessible because of the fighting.
"Criminal gangs" looted the main hospital, stealing vehicles and equipment and destroying the hospital’s blood bank, the syndicate said.
"It’s a scorched earth war," said Adam Haroun, a political activist in West Darfur, speaking by telephone with the sound of gunfire at times drowning out his voice.
Haroun and other residents said the city’s main open-air market was completely destroyed. Government offices and aid agencies’ compounds were trashed and repeatedly burned, including U.N. premises and the headquarters of the Sudanese Red Crescent.
Two major camps for displaced people have been burned down, their occupants — mainly women and children from African tribes — dispersed, said Abdel-Shafei Abdalla, a senior member of a local group that helps administer camps.
Elsewhere in Darfur, there have been sporadic clashes, particularly in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur province, where thousands have fled their homes, Abdalla said.
At least 512 people, including civilians and combatants, have been killed in Sudan since April 15, with another 4,200 wounded, according to the Sudanese Health Ministry. The Doctors’ Syndicate, which tracks civilian casualties, has recorded at least 303 civilians killed and 1,848 wounded.
Meanwhile, in Khartoum, residents reported heavy explosions and gunfire in the upscale neighborhood of Kafouri after the truce extension was announced. The military had earlier used warplanes to bomb RSF positions in the area.
Many are struggling to obtain food and water, and electricity is cut off across much of Khartoum and other cities. Multiple aid agencies have had to suspend operations. Fearing that fighting will escalate once more, Sudanese and foreigners have been rushing to escape.
Egypt has so far evacuated more than 5,300 Egyptians from Sudan and received more than 14,000 Sudanese fleeing the fighting, the Foreign Ministry said. Long lines of buses continue to form at the border, and tens of thousands more have gone to other neighboring countries or to the Red Sea city of Port Sudan, trying to get onto ferries to Saudi Arabia.
Hassan Ali, a Dutch citizen who made it to the city of Larnaca in Cyprus on an evacuation flight, told The Associated Press he had spent days trapped at home in Khartoum. Most areas had no water and only intermittent electricity.
"Most of the time we (are) locked at home unless you go for something really emergency, food, medication. That’s it," he said. Many sought shelter in hospitals, even though "most of the hospitals get attacked as well, by both sides."
"People, they just left everything behind," he said of those leaving. "There is no cash, There’s no money. You just take your bag."
Associated Press writers Menelaos Hadjicostis in Larnaca, Cyprus; Jill Lawless in London; Christopher Megerian, Lolita C. Baldor and Matthew Lee in Washington, and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed this report.
After years of political pushback and considerable parliamentary scrutiny, the federal Liberal government's Online Streaming Act known as Bill C-11 passed the Senate and has become law.
Workers in Canada's largest federal public service union are hitting the picket lines for the 10th day as negotiations continue.
Co-operation on targeting cross-border gun smuggling will top the agenda today when senior justice and public safety officials from Canada and the United States meet in Ottawa.
RCMP have shared a timeline of a bloody rampage on a Saskatchewan First Nation that left 11 dead and 17 injured.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will take his Canadian sales pitch to an influential U.S. audience this morning.
Those who experience serious mental health issues often face stigma from society, but a new study has found that their close family members also bear the brunt of that stigma.
The spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria poses a major threat to global health and food security as the use of antibiotics continue to grow. And now, a team of researchers from Quebec and France say bacteria with antibiotic-resistant genes can even spread through the clouds.
The Liberal’s Online Streaming Act passed the Senate and will become law, RCMP have released details about the James Smith Cree Nation mass murders, and what happened on day 9 of the PSAC strike.
The chairman of the BBC quit Friday after a report found he failed to disclose a potential conflict of interest over his role in arranging a 2021 loan for Boris Johnson, who was the U.K.'s prime minister at the time.
Major crime detectives are investigating after a newborn baby was found dead in a Victoria parking lot Wednesday night.
Canada says the United Nations' controversial move to enter dialogue with the Taliban must include women, as the organization mulls recognizing the terrorist group as the government of Afghanistan.
Montreal police say they have arrested a 16-year-old boy in connection with Israeli flags that were ripped down and set on fire outside a Jewish elementary school in a West Island suburb.
Striking federal public servants escalated actions on picket lines across the national capital region on Thursday, limiting access to federal buildings and temporarily disrupting traffic on an interprovincial bridge.
Military and foreign affairs officials said Thursday Canada expects to send additional planes to help evacuate people from Sudan in the coming days but the volatile situation on the ground is making planning difficult.
British Columbia Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth says Surrey residents will know Friday who will police the Metro Vancouver city: the RCMP or a municipal police service.
Former U.S. president Donald Trump turned his attention to the general election on Thursday, using his first campaign appearance since President Joe Biden launched his own re-election bid to boast of his poll numbers and suggest that he has no need to debate his Republican rivals.
Sudanese families were massing Wednesday at a border crossing with Egypt and at a port city on the Red Sea, desperately trying to escape their country's violence and sometimes waiting for days with little food or shelter, witnesses said.
The spiritual priorities of Pope Francis will be on display during a trip this week to Hungary, where the populist government will seek to downplay its diverging views on matters like immigration and minority rights while focusing instead on points where it aligns with the pontiff.
China's military flew 38 fighter jets and other warplanes near Taiwan, the Taiwanese defence ministry said Friday, in the largest such flight display since the large military exercise in which it simulated sealing off the island earlier in the month.
Former U.S. vice president Mike Pence testified Thursday before a federal grand jury investigating efforts by then-president Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Iran's navy seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday amid wider tensions over Tehran's nuclear program, the latest-such capture in a waterway crucial for global energy supplies.
After years of political pushback and considerable parliamentary scrutiny, the federal Liberal government's Online Streaming Act known as Bill C-11 passed the Senate and has become law.
Co-operation on targeting cross-border gun smuggling will top the agenda today when senior justice and public safety officials from Canada and the United States meet in Ottawa.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will take his Canadian sales pitch to an influential U.S. audience this morning.
The spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria poses a major threat to global health and food security as the use of antibiotics continue to grow. And now, a team of researchers from Quebec and France say bacteria with antibiotic-resistant genes can even spread through the clouds.
Last year, Ryan Reynolds lost a bet and filmed his first colonoscopy. That video, created in partnership with colon cancer awareness campaign Lead From Behind, is now an award-winner.
Those who experience serious mental health issues often face stigma from society, but a new study has found that their close family members also bear the brunt of that stigma.
Three months in the making, the French-language station Couleur 3 in Switzerland is touting a one-day experiment using cloned voices of five real, human presenters.
A research rocket launched by Sweden Space Corp (SSC) early on Monday from Esrange Space Centre in northern Sweden malfunctioned and landed 15 km (9.32 miles) inside neighbouring Norway.
The Ukrainian government is launching an initiative Wednesday to streamline and promote innovation in the development of drones and other technologies that have been critical during Russia's war in Ukraine.
Jerry Springer, the onetime mayor and news anchor whose namesake TV show featured a three-ring circus of dysfunctional families willing to bare all on weekday afternoons including brawls, obscenities and blurred images of nudity, died Thursday at 79.
'Jackass' star Bam Margera surrendered to Pennsylvania State Police on Thursday morning for allegedly punching his brother during an altercation four days earlier at their home in the Philadelphia suburbs.
Hundreds of thousands of Fox News viewers are reacting to Tucker Carlson's firing by abandoning the network in his old time slot — at least temporarily.
Statistics Canada is set to release its February reading for economic growth this morning.
European shares opened mixed after gains in Asia following Wall Street's best day since January. The dollar rose against the Japanese yen after the Bank of Japan kept its ultra-lax monetary policy unchanged.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says the average home price will not revert to pre-pandemic levels in 2023 because declines in prices will taper off soon and bottom out sometime this year.
Some Canadians heading to London for coronation festivities have enlisted a key expert to ensure they look their royal best: a master milliner.
A Brazilian dictionary has added 'Pele' as an adjective to use when describing someone who is 'exceptional, incomparable, unique.'
Uber has revealed the most common items that Canadian riders left behind in Uber vehicles in 2023.
Michael Eyssimont had a goal and an assist as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 on Thursday to force Game 6 in their first-round playoff series.
Linnea Johansson shot a 7-under 64 to take a one-shot lead after the first round of the JM Eagle LA Championship on Thursday at Wilshire Country Club.
Bryce Young's talent outweighed concerns about his size. The Carolina Panthers selected the slender and dynamic Alabama quarterback with the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft Thursday night, seven weeks after making a blockbuster trade with Chicago to move up to get their choice of potential franchise players.
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix is the first of six F1 events this season with a sprint race, with a new twist. There's a second qualifying session as part of rule changes to discourage teams and drivers from playing it safe, and practice time has been cut to a single session.
Ride-hailing firm Lyft Inc said it will lay off about 1,072 employees, or 26 per cent of its workforce, in one of the first steps by the new Chief Executive David Risher, sending its shares up by about 1 per cent on Thursday.
Honda is gearing up for an electrification shift in North America with two models developed with General Motors going on sale next year and a bigger EV with a new platform in 2025, a year earlier than initially announced.
CTV News Programs
Local News
© 2023 
All rights reserved. Use of this Website assumes acceptance of Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy