Large explosion near army headquarters in Khartoum as Sudan Eid ceasefire ends

People flee as smoke billows on Wednesday, the first day of Eid Al Adha, in Wad Hamid, about 100km north of Khartoum. AFP

An Eid Al Adha truce was brought to an abrupt end on Thursday as a powerful explosion near Sudan's army headquarters was felt across the capital Khartoum.

Residents said fighting between rival forces resumed on the second day of Eid Al Adha, as columns of smoke rose from the explosion site.

Ceasefires announced separately by the warring generals for the holiday were supposed to halt fighting, but sporadic clashes were reported.

Deadly fighting since mid-April between forces loyal to army chief Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has left millions of Khartoum residents trapped, rationing electricity and water in the oppressive heat.

Residents 7km away from the army headquarters “felt the tremor in their walls,” one of them told AFP.

The source of the explosion could not be immediately verified, and there was no immediate word on casualties.

In north-west Khartoum, army fighter jets launched strikes on RSF troops, witnesses said.

The war between Gen Al Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Dagalo, has killed at least 2,800 people, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

The tally is a conservative estimate, with many of the wounded unable to reach health centres and bodies left to rot in the streets in both Khartoum and the western region of Darfur, where most of the violence has occurred.

More than two million have been displaced within and beyond Sudan's borders.

The fighting, which erupted on April 15, has shown no signs of abating as experts say both sides refuse to negotiate before claiming military advantage.

Gen Al Burhan this week called for Sudanese “youth and all those able to defend” to take up arms with the military to defend against the “existential threat” posed by the RSF.

The call has been widely rejected by civilians, who are raising alarm that what began as a power struggle between generals is spiralling into a protracted civil conflict.

The UN has warned that attacks by the RSF and allied ethnically Arab militias in Darfur could constitute “crimes against humanity”.