BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Something complicating the emergence of information this morning is the fact that that national broadcasters Sudan TV (SRTC) and Sudan Radio have both been off air since 12:27 GMT on Sunday.

The state broadcaster had earlier taken to playing patriotic songs.

A local news website reported on Saturday that clashes had taken place within the headquarters of the national broadcaster and that its control room "was bombed".

Both the army and the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have claimed to be in control of the TV station.

Reuters cited SRTC staff, external as saying that the authorities had cut transmissions in order to prevent broadcasting by RSF forces, after troops entered SRTC HQ.

A video posted on social media shows an attack helicopter flying low over Khartoum, as smoke billows in the background from the city's international airport.

Ahmed Mohamed Abdi
BBC Monitoring

Image source, Reuters

It is not clear who is in charge in Sudan.

Conflicting narratives have emerged as deadly clashes continue, having broken out early on Saturday between the army (SAF) and the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Nearly 100 civilians have been killed as violence spread from the capital Khartoum to other cities.

In the absence of state media - which abruptly halted live broadcasts after clashes at its headquarters in Omdurman - the SAF and the RSF have predominantly used social media to issue competing statements.

These have included claiming control of strategic sites such as command centres, air bases and the presidential palace.

The clashes are underpinned by a power struggle between the army chief and country's de facto president, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and his deputy who also commands the RSF, Gen Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti.

Since hijacking a popular civilian uprising to oust long-serving President Omar al-Bashir in 2019, the army has concentrated power around itself.

Emmanuel Igunza
Reporting from Nairobi

Heavy gunfire and explosions can be heard in the Sudanese capital this morning as fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces continues for a third day.

Residents in Khartoum tell us that they remain stuck in their homes, even as food and water supplies dwindle.

The Sudanese doctors’ union has warned that the death toll, estimated at 97, could rise even further.

At least 3,000 Kenyans are stuck in the Sudan fighting, Foreign Affairs Minister Alfred Mutua said on Sunday.

Mr Mutua said that the government was in communication with the national carrier, Kenya Airways, in a bid to try and evacuate them "once things cool off".

"We are in touch with our embassy in Sudan and we will help Kenyans stuck there due to the ongoing war," Mr Mutua said.

Kenya's President William Ruto has asked regional leaders to take a firm position on the Sudan crisis to restore peace in the country.

Fighting between government forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continued on Monday despite pleas by the international community to warring parties to cease fire.

Image source, Getty Images

A regional African grouping, Igad, on Sunday said it planned to send three presidents to Sudan at the earliest possible time to reconcile the fighting rival military groups.

The group in a virtual meeting agreed to send the presidents of Kenya, South Sudan and Djibouti to the capital Khartoum. It also called for an immediate cessation of hostilities between the warring parties in Sudan.

But with the international airport closed, it's uncertain when any peace initiative can begin.

Fighting between government forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continued on Monday despite pleas by the international community to warring parties to cease fire.

Kenya's President William Ruto asked Igad leaders to take a firm position to restore peace in Khartoum.

The UN World Food Programme has suspended its work after three of its staff were killed, while a UN plane has been badly damaged.

Nearly 100 people have been killed in the clashes.

The Newsroom
BBC World Service

Image source, Getty Images

The Sudanese doctors' union says almost 100 civilians have died in fighting between the army and a rival paramilitary force that's now in its third day.

Residents reported sustained gunfire in the capital, Khartoum on Monday, and fighting has also been seen in other cities across Sudan.

It's not known how many soldiers have been killed, but dead bodies are reported to have been left lying in the streets.

Many properties and cars have been destroyed.

Regional leaders say they hope to travel to Sudan on Monday to try to bring an end to the fighting that's halted all aid operations.

The country is suffering a severe drought and is in desperate need of assistance.

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Conflict and tension in Sudan is nothing new. But recently, violence in the African country has escalated leaving many dozens dead. The fighting that has erupted in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country is a direct result of a vicious power struggle within the country's military leadership. Since a coup in October 2021, Sudan has been run by a council of generals, led by the two military men at the centre of the dispute.

They have disagreed on the direction the country is going in and the proposed move towards civilian rule.

There had been some hope that talks could resolve the situation but they never happened. Even though the conflict appears to be around the control of key installations, much of it is happening in urban areas and civilians have become caught up in the unrest.

For 5 Questions On, the BBC's Sudan Analyst, James Copnall, explains what's happening and whether a resolution is likely.

Image Credit: Reuters

People take cover in Sudan's capital as the army clash with paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Naturalist Brett Westwood has been thinking more and more about migration to the UK. He’s spent a lifetime studying migrating birds, but he’s become increasingly alert to the people making a similar journey.

He’s particularly interested in cuckoos. We might think of cuckoos as quintessentially British, but they only spend about 10 to 12 weeks of their year here in the UK. They are native to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Brett considers the journeys of both cuckoos and people from the DRC to the UK. He explores the reasons they come, the routes they take, the perils they face along the way and the lives they live when they get here.

He talks with Mike Toms and Chris Hewson from the British Trust for Ornithology about the work they do in tracking cuckoo migration; to Natasha Walter, Director of the organisation: Women for Refugee Women; and to two asylum-seeking women who have made the perilous journey from the DRC to the UK to make a new life here.

Producer: Rosie Boulton A Must Try Softer production for BBC Radio 4

Accused of widespread abuses, the Rapid Support Forces sprang from "Janjaweed" militias linked to genocide in Darfur.

The camel trader turned military leader has been accused of a string of human rights abuses.

David Attenborough's documentary series which celebrates our planet in all its eclectic wonder. He reveals the greatest woodlands on earth, from the evergreen forests of the frozen north to the deciduous dry forests of the equator.

The Taiga forest is a silent world of stunted conifers cloaked in snow and ice. The trees form a belt that circles the globe, broken only by ocean, and contains a third of all trees on earth. Here, animals are scarce, with just a few charismatic loners like the wolverine and lynx.

By contrast, the broadleaf forests of North America and Europe bustle with life. The most startling illustration happens just once every 17 years, when the nymphs of the periodical cicada burst from the soil in the biggest insect emergence on the planet.

In California, witness the cameras fly up the tallest trees on earth: giant redwoods over 100 metres high. See General Sherman, a giant sequoia, ten times the size of a blue whale, and the largest living thing on the planet. Close by are bristlecone pines, so old they pre-date the pyramids and were already 2,500 years old when Jesus Christ was born.

The baobab forests of Madagascar are the strangest of all. The bizarre upside down trees store water in their swollen trunks and harbour strange wildlife, such as the tiny mouse lemur, the world's smallest primate.

First transmitted in 1961, David Attenborough travels to Meru National Park in Kenya to visit Joy and George Adamson and meet Elsa the lioness and her cubs shortly before Elsa's death.

In the late 1950s, game warden George and his wife Joy became the carers of three orphaned cubs - Elsa, Big One and Lustica - after George had been forced to kill their mother. Big One and Lustica were eventually sent to Rotterdam Zoo in the Netherlands, but Elsa remained with the Adamsons. Joy's quest to train Elsa to survive in the wild and Elsa's subsequent independence became the basis for the book and film Born Free.

Now living in the wild with her own three cubs in Meru National Park, David joins the Adamsons as they try and track down Elsa to check up on her wellbeing.