Sudan fighting in its 27th day: A list of key events

By William On May 11, 2023

Sources report progress in mediation efforts in Jeddah as a hunger crisis threatens millions of Sudanese.

This is the situation on Thursday, May 11, 2023:

To fight

Residents reported ground fighting in several neighborhoods of Khartoum between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), as well as heavy gunfire in northern Omdurman and eastern Khartoum North, two neighboring towns separated from Khartoum by the Nile River.
The army has been pounding targets in the three cities since Tuesday as it tries to wipe out RSF forces that have taken control of major residential areas and strategic locations since the start of the conflict that erupted on April 15.
The RSF said on Tuesday that the historic presidential palace in central Khartoum, which is of symbolic importance and is located in a strategic area the RSF says it controls, had been destroyed by an airstrike, a claim the military denied.
Drone footage filmed Wednesday and verified by Reuters appeared to show the building, known as the Old Republican Palace, intact, though smoke could be billowing from the southeastern end of the compound.
In el-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state, about 350 km southwest of Khartoum, residents reported fighting and explosions.

Witnesses have reported seeing bodies in the streets as most hospitals have been shut down due to deteriorating security.
The United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP) warned on Wednesday that as many as 2.5 million people could experience increased hunger in Sudan as a result of the conflict, bringing the number of people in acute food insecurity to 19 million.
Aid agency Islamic Relief said many aid operations in Darfur and Khartoum remained suspended due to extreme insecurity.
An Emirati military plane arrived in Port Sudan with humanitarian supplies on Wednesday, after two Saudi Arabian planes loaded with aid landed there on Tuesday, AFP journalists said.
More than 700,000 people are now internally displaced by fighting that began on April 15, and another 150,000 have fled the country, UN agencies reported this week.
Dozens of zoo animals in Khartoum, including an elderly crocodile, parrots and giant lizards, are feared to have died after street fighting between the country’s rival armed forces left the site inaccessible.
At least 100 animals, all of which are kept in enclosures, will have been without food or water for more than three weeks, said Sara Abdalla, the zoo’s chief zoologist, who is part of the Sudan Natural History Museum.

After days of no apparent movement, talks between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary RSF in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, have progressed and a ceasefire agreement is expected soon, a mediator told Reuters.
US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland previously said US negotiators were “cautiously optimistic” about securing a commitment to humanitarian principles and a ceasefire, but also looking at suitable targets for sanctions if warring parties fail to do so. supports.