At least three civilians have been killed in today’s clashes in Khartoum, a doctors’ trade union has said.
The leader of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces paramilitary fighters, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, has claimed that his troops were forced into a confrontation with the military to foil a coup plot.
In a telephone interview with the al-Jazeera news channel, he said the RSF would continue fighting until all army bases were captured.
He described army chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan as a criminal and accused the military of carrying out a plot hatched by supporters of Sudan’s former authoritarian President Omar al-Bashir, who was overthrown in a coup in 2021.
Gen Dagalo said he was committed to full civilian rule in Sudan and the clashes between the RSF and the military would end very soon.
He added that they would lead to a peaceful solution and “handing over criminals to justice“.
He said Gen Burhan would either face justice or he would be killed.
State-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines said that one of its Airbus A330 jets “had an accident” at Khartoum before its scheduled departure for Riyadh at 07:30 GMT.
The airline added that it was working with the Saudi embassy in Sudan to establish what happened and that flights to and from Khartoum had been suspended until further notice.
Egyptian national carrier EgyptAir said it was suspending flights to and from Khartoum for 72 hours.
International concern is growing over the fighting in Sudan.
The latest figure to speak out is EU foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell, who has called on all forces involved to “stop the violence immediately”.
