Fighters rampage in Darfur despite fragile Sudan truce

CAIRO - Armed fighters rampaged through a main 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 a fragile three-day 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. The fighting had turned residential neighborhoods into battlegrounds.

The relative calm has allowed foreign governments to airlift out hundreds of citizens, while tens of thousands of Sudanese have streamed out of Khartoum, seeking safer areas or escape abroad.

The military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, said late Thursday that it had accepted a 72-hour cease-fire extension brokered by the United States and Saudi Arabia. There was no immediate comment from its rivals in the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, led by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has spoken repeatedly with both generals and helped broker the initial truce, said earlier that "we are very actively working to extend the cease-fire."

"We've had a 72-hour cease-fire, which like most cease-fires is imperfect but nonetheless has reduced violence," he said. "We want to make sure that, if possible, this is extended. We're very actively engaged on that. I hope and expect to have more information on that in the coming hours."

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly urged U.K. nationals who want to leave to get to an airfield north of Khartoum for evacuation flights before the truce runs out Thursday at midnight. "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.

Even in the capital, fighting has not stopped, residents said. In the western region of Darfur, residents said the violence was escalating 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.

Fighters, some on motorcycles, roamed the streets, destroying and ransacking offices, shops and homes, several residents 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. Thousands have fled their homes in Nyala, and others are too afraid to go outside for food and water, Abdalla said. Earlier this month, fighters allegedly from the RSF destroyed and looted warehouses for the World Food Program and other aid agencies in Nyala.

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 295 civilians killed and 1,790 wounded.

Meanwhile, in Khartoum, residents reported gunfire and explosions in some parts of the capital on Thursday. They said the military's warplanes bombed RSF positions in the upscale neighborhood of Kafouri. The RSF confirmed its camp in the neighborhood was bombed.

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's Foreign Ministry said 14,000 Sudanese have fled into Egypt. 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. Iraq and Yemen's internationally recognized government each said they had helped more than 200 of their citizens escape Sudan.

Canada carried out its first evacuation flight on Thursday after facing criticism for a slow response, with allies doing the heavy lifting to help Canadians leave the country until now.

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 and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed this report.