Shootouts in Sudan capital on Eid holiday, army moves in on foot

Soldiers and gunmen from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) shot at each other in the north, west and centre of the city, including during the call for special early morning Eid prayers on the first day of the Muslim holiday, witnesses said.
 

The unabated fighting has killed hundreds and tipped Africa's third largest country - where around a quarter of people already relied on food aid - into a humanitarian disaster.

An international push for a temporary truce to allow civilians to reach safety and visit family over the three day holiday has so far failed. Foreign nations including the United States, Japan, South Korea, Germany and Spain have been unable to evacuate their citizens.

South Korea sent a military aircraft on Friday to stand by at a U.S. military base in Sudan's neighouring Djibouti in east Africa to prepare to evacuate its nationals.

The RSF said it had agreed to a 72-hour truce on humanitarian grounds from 6 a.m. (0400 GMT) on Friday, to coincide with Eid al-Fitr.
 

In a statement posted on Twitter, the RSF said the truce was intended "to open humanitarian corridors to evacuate citizens and give them the opportunity to greet their families."

Instead of a ceasefire, the army has entered a new phase, fighting the RSF on the ground, after having stuck largely to air strikes across the capital, with fiercer clashes in central Khartoum, since the power struggle erupted last weekend.

Army troops brandishing semi-automatic weapons were greeted by cheers on one street, a video released by the military on Friday showed. Reuters verified the location of the video, in the north of the city, but could verify when it was filmed.

The violence was triggered by disagreement over an internationally backed plan to form a new civilian government four years after the fall of autocrat Omar al-Bashir to mass protests, and two years after a military coup.

Both sides accuse the other of thwarting the transition.