Sudan's RSF leader Hemedti says 'discussed pressing issues' with Blinken

Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, spoke with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the phone and "discussed pressing issues".

"We will have another call to continuing dialogue and working hand-in-hand to forge a brighter future for our nations," Hemedti said in a post on Twitter.

Hemedti's whereabouts have not been disclosed since Saturday when fighting erupted between the RSF and Sudan's army.

Blinken also spoke to army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, according to the US State Department.

The US diplomat urged both leaders to agree to a ceasefire and said both had a responsibility to "ensure the safety and wellbeing of civilians, diplomatic personnel, and humanitarian workers", the State Department said.

Sudan's battling factions both claimed to have made gains on Monday as violence cut power and water in the capital, and the UN envoy to Sudan said the two sides showed no signs of being willing to negotiate.

Fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed at least 185 people and injured more than 1,800, said UN envoy Volker Perthes amid airstrikes and fighting in Khartoum and strife across Sudan. Their power struggle has derailed a shift to civilian rule and raised fears of a wider conflict.

Smoke hung over the capital, and residents reported a clamour of airstrikes, artillery fire and shooting that shut hospitals in a city unused to violence.

"The two sides who are fighting are not giving the impression that they want mediation for a peace between them right away," Perthes told reporters by video link from Khartoum.

He said the rivals had agreed to a three-hour humanitarian truce. But fighting continued for a second day, despite the promises of calm, according to Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya TV reporters broadcasting from Khartoum.

The fighting in Khartoum and its adjoining sister cities of Omdurman and Bahri since Saturday is the worst in decades and risks tearing Sudan between two military factions that had shared power during a rocky political transition.

Army chief Burhan heads a ruling council installed after a 2021 coup and the 2019 ousting of veteran leader Omar Bashir during mass protests. RSF leader Hemedti is his deputy.

In a speech broadcast by Egyptian state television late on Monday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he was in regular contact with the army and RSF to "encourage them to accept a ceasefire and spare the blood of the Sudanese people".

Under an internationally backed transition plan, the RSF was shortly due to merge with the army. Burhan on Monday branded the RSF a rebel group and ordered it dissolved.

Meanwhile, the European Union said its envoy to Sudan was assaulted in his residence on Monday but gave no details. The White House said there were no plans for a U.S. government evacuation.

'WE'RE SCARED'

Offices, schools and petrol stations in the capital were shut on Monday, while health services were widely disrupted and doctors said most major hospitals had gone out of service.

The bridges linking Khartoum with Omdurman and Bahri across the Nile River's two main branches were blocked by armoured vehicles, and some roads leading from the capital were impassable. Television images showed a fire raging at the international airport inside the city.

With water and power cut across large parts of the capital, some residents were venturing out to buy food, forming long queues at bakeries.

There has been no police presence on the streets of Khartoum since Saturday, and witnesses reported cases of looting.

UN chief Antonio Guterres urged a return to calm, saying an already precarious humanitarian situation was now catastrophic and UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said fighting had shuttered many aid programmes.