“At the moment neither side appears to be winning, and given the intensity of the violence, things could get worse before the two generals come to the negotiating table,” said Clément Deshayes, a Sudan expert at Paris’ Sorbonne University. “
But this will require “pressure on regional allies, and so far their announcements are not moving in that direction – international actors appear to be biding their time until the situation becomes clearer”.
Saturday’s outbreak of violence is the culmination of a deep-seated rift between the army and the RSF, created in 2013 by longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir.