Strikes hit Sudan cities as army chief defiant after US visa snub

Two Sudanese cities were targeted by strikes on Sunday, witnesses told AFP, a day after army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan vowed to press ahead with the years-long war against a rival paramilitary force despite a US visa snub and mounting pressure for a ceasefire.

Sudan has been at war since April 2023 when a power struggle between Burhan and his former deputy, commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, escalated into a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions.

Witnesses told AFP on Sunday that a drone strike hit a major fuel depot near the army-held city of Wad Madani in central Sudan, while two explosions rocked Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state and the RSF's main stronghold in the west of the country.

The strike near Wad Madani was the first reported attack on the capital of Al-Jazira state since the military recaptured it from the RSF last year.

"A fire broke out at the depot, and I could see the flames from about three kilometres away," one witness told AFP.

Another said he saw "a drone strike the fuel tanks" at the Umm Alaila fuel depot, which supplies several states in central Sudan.

In Nyala, a witness said early Sunday he "heard a plane in the sky, and a short while later the two explosions occurred".

A second witness told AFP that "this morning we heard two loud explosions" from central Nyala.

Another said smoke "was rising from central Nyala and RSF forces surrounded the area and closed the roads around it".

The strikes come after the US denied a visa for the country's de facto leader to attend the United Nations General Assembly earlier this week.

But Burhan struck a defiant tone on Saturday at a youth event in capital Khartoum.

"Our goal is to eliminate this militia no matter how long it takes," he said, adding Sudan would not submit to "blackmail".

"We do not want a visa from any country. We will stay here and die with you in this country."

A diplomatic source told AFP the US visa snub was linked to US efforts to secure a three-month truce between the army and the RSF.

Khartoum has rejected the proposal, arguing that any truce would allow the paramilitary force to regroup.