AFP/Getty Images
This photo, taken on September 17, shows a raging fire at the Greater Nile Petroleum Oil Company Tower in Khartoum.
CNN
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Sudan’s warring factions have traded blame for a massive fire that engulfed landmark towers in the capital, Khartoum, amid fierce fighting in the conflict between the country’s armed forces and a paramilitary group.
Black smoke billowed from the 18-story Greater Nile Petroleum Oil Company tower on Sunday as fire tore through the glass-fronted skyscraper.
Other towers – housing the country’s Ministry of Justice, its tax authority and the Standards and Metrology Organization – also went up in flames, Pictures and videos published on X, formerly Twitter, by local media showed.
It is not immediately known what caused the fires or if anyone was killed.
In a announcement on Monday, the Foreign Ministry, which is controlled by the Sudanese military, accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of “targeting a number of large and important economic institutions and commercial buildings in the country” over the past two days.
RSF previously accused the Sudanese armed forces of carrying out “targeted attacks in Khartoum,” which it claimed “has affected critical facilities”, including the destroyed landmark buildings.
AFP/Getty Images
Massive flames engulf the building that houses Sudan’s Standards and Metrology Authority.
Aerial bombings have intensified since fighting broke out in mid-April between the Sudanese army and the RSF. Some of these airstrikes have hit populated areas, resulting in more civilian casualties.
At least 43 people were killed a week ago after a market in southern Khartoum was hit by an airstrike, a Sudanese medical association said.
Another 32 civilians were killed days before in a similar attack in Omdurman, also in Khartoum.
Fighting between Sudan’s military and the RSF has left at least 5,000 people dead and over 12,000 injured. according to UN figures. Peace deals brokered by the US and Saudi Arabia have failed to end the conflict.
More than 4 million people have fled the violence across Sudan, with more than half fleeing the capital alone, according to the International Organization for Migration.
