Residents said that the two warring factions in Sudan have engaged in violent clashes in parts of the city of Bahri, a day after both sides welcomed new mediation efforts aimed at ending the three-month-old war.
The fighting that broke out on April 15 caused the displacement of civilians from Khartoum state, which consists of the cities of Khartoum, Bahri and Omdurman, and also caused ethnically motivated attacks in the Darfur region.
Regional and international mediation efforts have so far failed to end the fighting, and United Nations officials have said Sudan may slide into civil war.
The latest mediation attempt took place in Egypt, on Thursday. The Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces welcomed the mediation efforts. However, four residents of the northern city of Bahri told Reuters that they woke up early in the morning to the sound of violent clashes between the two parties, and the clashes appeared to have centered around the Halfaya Bridge linking Bahri and Omdurman.
While the Rapid Support Forces focused on deploying quickly around the capital in the first days of fighting, the army focused on air and artillery strikes, which did little to change the scene.
The army has carried out more ground operations in the past few weeks, specifically in Omdurman.
Bahri residents said they heard air strikes, artillery shells, and gunshots that continued until the afternoon.
Reuters quoted a military source as saying that the army succeeded in expelling the Rapid Support Forces from the northernmost neighborhoods of the city, but the Rapid Support Forces said in a statement that they were able to defeat the army forces and kill hundreds.
The Sudanese army said in a statement that it carried out ground operations in the three cities in the capital, and that those operations succeeded, and said that it had suffered some losses in Bahri, but described the figures announced by the Rapid Support Forces for its losses as exaggerated.
Residents in the broader state of Khartoum reported outages for several hours during the morning.
Other witnesses also reported clashes around an army base in southern Khartoum.
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