No fewer than 56 people were killed while hundreds of others sustained injuries in a power struggle that broke out between the Sudanese military and a notorious paramilitary force, RSF, in Khartoum, the capital.

Residents in the capital were forced to run for cover as competing forces fought for control of the presidential palace, state TV, army headquarters and other strategic government assets.

In a bid to reassert control over the country, the Sudanese military launched air strikes on a paramilitary force’s base in the early hours of Saturday.

Eyewitness accounts reported heavy sound of artillery firing across Khartoum, Omdurman and nearby Bahri, and there was also gunfire heard in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan.

According to the Sudanese Doctors’ Union, about 56 civilians had been killed and 595 people, including combatants, had been wounded since the fighting started on Saturday.

Three World Food Programme (WFP) employees, a UN agency that provides food assistance to vulnerable individuals and communities, were also killed.

It is unknown who fired the first shot on Saturday morning, but there are concerns that this will exacerbate an already volatile situation.

Diplomats have appealed to both sides to put down their weapons.

Meanwhile the UN, US, Saudi Arabia, UAE and others have called for calm while urging all parties involved in the clashes to return to the framework agreement on Sudan’s transition to democracy.

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken noted that he has consulted with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates about the fighting in Sudan.

“We agreed it was essential for the parties to immediately end hostilities without pre-condition,” he said in a statement.