\n A wanted Sudanese war crimes suspect has confirmed that he and other members of the Islamist regime ousted in 2019 have escaped from prison during recent fighting, raising new fears for a fragile ceasefire that has enabled foreigners to flee.\n<\/p>\n
\n The 72-hour ceasefire brokered by the United States was already struggling to hold after the regular army launched renewed air strikes against rival paramilitary forces in the capital late on Tuesday.\n<\/p>\n
\n Anti-aircraft guns fired at fighter jets in the skies over Khartoum's sister city of Omdurman on Wednesday, witnesses told AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n Armed clashes meanwhile continued in Soba on the outskirts of Khartoum, witnesses said.\n<\/p>\n
\n The escape of leading figures from the ousted regime of Omar al-Bashir, at least one of whom is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, has raised fears the conflict may take a turn for the worse.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ahmed Harun, a top Bashir aide who led the regime's infamous counter-insurgency operations in Darfur in the mid-2000s, said late Tuesday that he and other regime members had escaped from Kober prison.\n<\/p>\n
\n The ousted dictator had himself been held in the same prison but the army confirmed Wednesday that the 79-year-old had already been transferred to hospital before the current fighting erupted on April 15.\n<\/p>\n
\n Members of Bashir's regime, including the strongman himself, had been moved to a military hospital \"due to their health conditions... and remain in the hospital under the guard of the judicial police\", the army said in a statement, without specifying when they had been moved.\n<\/p>\n
\n It was the third reported jail break to have taken advantage of the fighting between forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and those backing his deputy turned rival, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We remained in our detention at Kober, under the crossfire of this current battle, for nine days,\" even after the jail was emptied of both guards and prisoners, Harun said in a recorded address to Sudanese television.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said he and fellow jailed regime members \"had now taken responsibility for our protection in our own hands\" in another location.\n<\/p>\n
\n Security fears had already been raised on Tuesday when the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of a \"huge biological risk\" after combatants occupied a Khartoum laboratory holding samples of cholera, measles, polio and other infectious diseases.\n<\/p>\n
\n The fighting between the rival generals, which has involved air strikes and artillery exchanges, has killed hundreds of people and left some neighbourhoods of greater Khartoum in ruins.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Mass exodus -\n<\/p>\n
\n As the fighting eased on Tuesday in the city of five million people, foreign governments organised road convoys, aircraft and ships to get their nationals out.\n<\/p>\n
\n A ship carrying nearly 1,700 civilians from more than 50 countries docked in Saudi Arabia early Wednesday, the kingdom's foreign ministry said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Sudanese workers meanwhile complained of being left in a state of desperation, unable to leave their homes during the fighting.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I say to Hemeti, my brother, please, the war has destroyed the Sudanese people. My brother, Burhan, stop the war,\" Barir Hamad, a builder, told AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Why didn't the officials care for the Sudanese people and their suffering?\" said Alnour Mohamed Ahmed, another builder. \"People can't leave their homes.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Late Tuesday, witnesses reported renewed air strikes in Khartoum North where they said fighter jets struck RSF vehicles.\n<\/p>\n
\n The RSF posted a video in which it claimed to be in control of an oil refinery and the associated Garri power plant more than 70 kilometres (more than 40 miles) north of Khartoum.\n<\/p>\n
\n Shortly before, the army had warned in a Facebook post of \"heavy movement towards the refinery in order to take advantage of the truce by taking control of the refinery\".\n<\/p>\n
\n The two sides have both made unverifiable claims to control key sites, adding to what experts call an overwhelming state of fear in the capital.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Famine risk -\n<\/p>\n
\n A UN report warned that \"shortages of food, water, medicines and fuel are becoming extremely acute, especially in Khartoum and surrounding areas\".\n<\/p>\n
\n \"In some places, humanitarian aid is all that is keeping famine at bay,\" UN chief Antonio Guterres said Tuesday.\n<\/p>\n
\n The UN said it was bracing for an exodus of up to 270,000 refugees to Sudan's even poorer neighbours Chad and South Sudan.\n<\/p>\n
\n The fighting has killed at least 459 people and wounded more than 4,000, according to UN agencies.\n<\/p>\n
\n A total of 14 hospitals have been shelled since fighting erupted, the doctors' union said Wednesday, while 19 others are out of service.\n<\/p>\n
\n Sudan has a long history of military coups.\n<\/p>\n
\n The RSF emerged from the Janjaweed militia that then-president Bashir unleashed in the Darfur region two decades ago.\n<\/p>\n
\n The military toppled Bashir in a palace coup in April 2019 following civilian mass protests that raised hopes for a transition to democracy.\n<\/p>\n
\n The two generals seized power in a 2021 coup, but later fell out, most recently over the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army.\n<\/p>\n
\n bur\/sbh\/kir\n<\/p>\n
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