(CNN) The Sudanese army said it agreed to a 24-hour ceasefire on Wednesday after paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) attempted to capture the army’s headquarters.
However, it is unclear whether the truce would hold after a similar truce collapsed on Tuesday.
Heavy fighting broke out in central Khartoum on Wednesday, as well as heavy clashes at the capital’s main airport, which has been closed since Saturday, as RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, attacked Sudanese military chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan for the power fights.
Hemedti commands his troops from the Hai Al Matar neighborhood, which is near the military headquarters, a senior military official and an eyewitness told CNN.
The military official preferred to remain anonymous as he was not authorized to speak. The eyewitness who saw Hemedti’s convoy asked for anonymity, fearing for her safety.
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Sudan’s armed forces said in a statement on Wednesday that they “repelled and defeated” the RSF’s attempt to capture the army headquarters, saying they had “amounts of ammunition, a range of medium and light machine guns, personal… Weapons and 24 Land Cruisers seized”. She [RSF] left behind.”
She acknowledged that since fighting broke out on Saturday, RSF has managed to seize a number of government headquarters, including the Ministry of the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Interior and the Civil Registry Department, and use these “civilian institutions to manage their fighting operations.”
The army said that RSF had seized a number of “weapon caches from police stations”.
Later on Wednesday, internet watchdog NetBlocks said that an internet outage was “registered at Sudanese internet provider Canar Telecom amid ongoing clashes between military and paramilitary forces; Power outages and disruptions have continued since the conflict erupted this week.”
The ceasefire agreed on Wednesday began at 6:00 p.m. local time (12:00 p.m. ET) and will end at the same time the next day, and if it holds, it will benefit civilians trapped in the middle of control of the country , provide a respite.
It comes a day after both factions accused the other of breaking a truce on Tuesday, with classes erupting again in the capital. The Sudanese Armed Forces accused RSF of attacking, looting and “burning down the Bahri market in Khartoum,” said the spokesman for the Sudanese Armed Forces, Brigadier General Nabil Abdallah Ali Moussa.
“The real problem is that the RSF doesn’t seem to be controlled by their leadership. They behave similarly to gangs and threaten people’s lives,” Moussa said.
The RSF accused the armed forces of breaking the ceasefire “in the first hours” after it came into effect and said the army remained involved in “heavy weapon attacks and indiscriminate bombing”.
A Rapid Support Forces (RSF) vehicle was damaged in clashes with Sudanese forces.
Civilians, meanwhile, have fallen into the chaos. “The situation today is worse than yesterday,” Amal, a Sudanese woman who was confined in her home, told CNN.
“We can hear heavy artillery and smell and see smoke billowing from burning buildings,” she said.
Eman, a British-Sudanese doctor visiting Khartoum who has been trapped at her home since Saturday, told CNN some of her friends and family members had to leave their homes to seek shelter from indiscriminate bombing that hit some apartment buildings.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) issued a statement on Wednesday calling for immediate humanitarian access.
“Ferocious clashes in the capital Khartoum continued overnight, with reports of rising civilian casualties. Hospitals in the capital are dangerously short on medical supplies, while damage to water and power infrastructure has also left medical facilities without electricity and clean water,” the ICRC said.
A satellite image shows a burning building at Merowe Airbase on April 18.
Patrick Youssef, the ICRC’s Africa regional director, called for “unrestricted” access.
“It is very disturbing to hear reports of civilian casualties and bodies left in the streets of Khartoum,” he said. “They must be collected and treated with dignity.”
Half of the hospitals in the Sudanese capital are “out of order” due to escalating fighting, according to a leading aid organization — even as the death toll is rising and many of the injured need urgent medical attention.
“According to the information we have in Khartoum, 50% of the hospitals were out of action in the first 72 hours,” said Abdalla Hussein, Médecins Sans Frontière (MSF) operations manager for Sudan. “This is because staff didn’t feel safe there, or the hospitals themselves were subject to shelling or bombing,” he said.
At least 296 people have been killed and more than 3,000 injured since fighting broke out on Saturday, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Foreign governments are pushing for a ceasefire
International governments have called for a ceasefire to allow authorities to distribute aid and coordinate evacuations.
On Wednesday, Japan said it was preparing to send its military to evacuate nationals from Sudan.
Japan has been able to contact all 60 of its nationals in Sudan, including embassy staff, Chief of Cabinet Hirokazu Matsuno said during an emergency news conference. There are no reports of injuries among them, although food and water are scarce and power outages have become more frequent as the security situation worsens.
The United States has not announced plans for an evacuation operation for Americans in Sudan, but has urged its nationals to stay indoors, take shelter and stay away from windows.
Other countries have published notices for their nationals in Sudan. China has urged its citizens there to remain vigilant and register their details online with the Chinese Embassy in Khartoum. The Indian embassy in Sudan also issued a recommendation on Tuesday, urging its citizens to stay indoors and ration supplies due to looting.
Attacks on UN staff and expats
The clues come as reports of attacks on foreigners and employees surface.
Armed personnel stormed the homes of people working for the UN and other international organizations in downtown Khartoum, according to reports in an internal UN document seen by CNN.
According to the document, the gunmen sexually assaulted women and stole belongings, including cars. A case of rape was also reported. These armed operatives, “allegedly from RSF, break into expat homes, separate and take away men and women,” the report said.
A line to get bread on April 18 in the Sudanese capital. A man inspects a damaged house in Khartoum on April 17.
CNN was unable to independently verify the alleged attacks. The RSF denied the claims and accused the Sudanese armed forces of committing the crimes while wearing RSF uniforms. The armed forces deny involvement in the attacks and have again accused the RSF of crimes against humanity.
In various incidents cited in the document, two Nigerian men working for an international organization were kidnapped and later released; a building housing the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs was attacked; and a rocket-propelled grenade hit the home of a local UN worker in Khartoum.
On Wednesday, medical charity MSF said its compound in Nyala, south Darfur, was raided by gunmen who “stole everything, including vehicles and office equipment”.
“Our warehouse of vital medical supplies was also searched, we do not know to what extent as we do not have access,” MSF said on its official Twitter account.
“We again call for respect for the protection of humanitarian organizations and their premises. Our priority now is to keep our employees safe,” the Post added.
Other incidents in recent days include a US diplomatic convoy coming under fire, the EU ambassador to Sudan being attacked at his residence in Khartoum and three UN World Food Program workers killed in clashes.
CNN’s Hamdi Alkhshali and Irene Nasser contributed to this report.