New Delhi: An 18-storey building was engulfed in flames in Sudan’s capital after heavy fighting between the army and a rival paramilitary force. The incident took place in Khartoum on Sunday.
The Greater Nile Petroleum Oil Company Tower, one of the tallest buildings in the Sudanese capital, caught fire during clashes between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, the Associated Press reported citing Sudanese media.
Videos posted online showed clouds of dark smoke rising from the burnt-out glass-paneled tower, located in the center of Khartoum. There have been no reports of injuries or deaths.
“This is truly painful,” said Tagreed Abdin, an architect of the building, in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “The landmark project defined the skyline of Khartoum Such senseless destruction,” she added.
Air strikes and ground battles have rocked Sudan since mid-April, when tensions between the country’s military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, burst into open fighting.
As per the United Nations, over one million people have been forced to flee the country and more than 4,000 people have been killed since the violence broke out in Sudan. However, doctors and activists have claimed that the real toll is almost certainly much higher than the released figures.
The conflict has reduced Khartoum to an urban warzone. In the Greater Khartoum area, RSF troops have commandeered civilian homes and turned them into operational bases, while the military has responded by bombing the residential areas, rights groups and activists say.
In the western Darfur region, the conflict has morphed into ethnic violence, with the RSF and allied Arab militias attacking ethnic African groups, according to rights groups and the United Nations.
Amnesty International in August said that both warring parties have committed extensive war crimes, including deliberate killings of civilians and sexual assault.