Air strikes hit outer areas of the Sudanese capital Khartoum overnight and on Saturday morning, as fighting that has trapped civilians in a humanitarian crisis and displaced more than a million people entered it's sixth week.
The fighting between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has led to a collapse in law and order with looting that both sides blame the other for. Stocks of food, cash, and essentials are rapidly dwindling.
Air strikes were reported by eyewitnesses in southern Omdurman and northern Bahri, the two cities that lie across the Nile from Khartoum, forming Sudan's "triple capital." Some of the strikes took place near the state broadcaster in Omdurman, the eyewitnesses said.
Eyewitnesses in Khartoum said that the situation was relatively calm, although sporadic gunshots could be heard, Reuters news agency reports.
Early morning artillery fire
The conflict, which began on April 15, has displaced almost 1.1 million people internally and into neighbouring countries. Some 705 people have been killed and at least 5,287 injured, according to the World Health Organization.
Talks sponsored by the United States and Saudi Arabia in Jeddah have not been fruitful, and the two sides have accused each other of violating multiple ceasefire agreements.
"We faced heavy artillery fire early this morning, the whole house was shaking," Sanaa Hassan, a 33-year-old living in the al-Salha neighborhood of Omdurman, told Reuters by phone.
"It was terrifying, everyone was lying under their beds. What's happening is a nightmare," she said.
The RSF members are said to be embedded in residential districts, drawing almost continual air strikes by the regular armed forces.
In recent days ground fighting has flared once again in the cities of Nyala and Zalenjei in Darfur region.
Both sides blamed each other in statements late on Friday for sparking the fighting in Nyala, one of the country's largest cities, which had for weeks been relatively calm due to a locally-brokered truce.
Political crisis deepens
A local activist told Reuters there were sporadic gun clashes near the city's main market close to army headquarters on Saturday morning. Almost 30 people have died in the two previous days of fighting, according to activists.
The war broke out in Khartoum after disputes over plans for the RSF to be integrated into the army and over the future chain of command under an internationally backed deal to shift Sudan towards democracy following the overthrow of president Omar al Bashir who had ruled the country for three decades.
As a further sign of rift, Sudan's de facto leader Abdel Fattah al Burhan has sacked his deputy-turned-rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo on Friday.
Hamdan Dagalo, is the commander of Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group clashing with the army in the lingering armed battle for control of Sudan.
After firing Dagalo, General Burhan appointed three allies to top jobs in the military.
"General Burhan has issued a constitutional decree assigning Malik Agar to the post of vice-president of the ruling transitional Sovereignty Council," the council said on its Facebook page.
The military has also reported that Burhan named General Shamsedding Kabashi to be his deputy, and chose two other loyal officers to be his assistants.
Agar, a former rebel leader and governor of Blue Nile state on the South Sudan border, signed a peace deal with Khartoum in 2020 and was appointed to the Sovereignty Council in February 2021.
He leads one wing of the SPLM-North, formed in 2011 by northern fighters of the movement, which led South Sudan to independence that year.
Observers consider Agar's promotion as a symbolic move which is not expected to impact the power struggle in Africa's third largest country.
