(CNN) — Residents of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, woke to the sound of artillery fire and warplanes on Monday as fierce fighting continued for a third day and the death toll neared 100, with hundreds injured. .

Speaking to CNN, the head of the Sudanese army, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, said that the attacks carried out in recent days by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) were a “coup attempt” by the state.

“This is an attempted coup and an uprising against the state,” Burhan told CNN by phone. He added that RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo had been “rioting” against the state and, if arrested, would be tried in court.

Gunshots can be heard in the background, despite a ceasefire agreement at 4:00 p.m. local time (10:00 a.m. ET).

Fighting between the paramilitary group Sudan Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Army continued late Sunday and escalated after dawn prayers, as it did on Sunday. Witnesses told CNN they heard heavy mortar and artillery fire in the early hours of Monday morning.

Clashes first broke out on Saturday between the country’s army and the RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, who told CNN on Sunday that soldiers had violated a temporary UN-brokered humanitarian truce.

Witnesses told CNN that there had been an increase in airstrikes around Khartoum airport and Sudanese army garrisons. There was an artillery attack east of Khartoum airport.

This Monday morning fighting was concentrated around a garrison of the Sudanese army and the RSF, witnesses told CNN, and videos have been verified showing how military planes and helicopters attacked the airport.

The video shows the destruction of the General Command building of the Sudan Armed Forces and the charred buildings that remain after Sunday’s raging fire; Located near Khartoum International Airport.

Residents in a neighborhood east of the airport told CNN they saw warplanes bombing locations east of the command. “We saw an explosion and smoke billowing from the Obaid Khatim road, and soon after, anti-aircraft artillery fired massively at the plane,” said an eyewitness.

Local resistance committees asked civilians to stay in their homes: a tweet from a local resident read: “We are trapped in our own homes with little to no protection. And all we hear is one explosion after another. What exactly happened and where are we?” I don’t know, but it looks like it was right over our heads.”

Sudan TV remains off the air; Television employees told CNN it was in the hands of the Sudanese paramilitary group RSF.

In the Kafouri area north of Khartoum, clashes and street fights broke out at dawn on Monday, prompting residents to start evacuating women and children from the area, wrote Sudanese journalist Fathi Al-Ardi on Facebook. In the Kalakla area, south of the capital, residents reported the walls of their houses shaking from the explosion.

Reports of fighting hundreds of kilometers away also surfaced in the eastern city of Port Sudan and the western region of Darfur over the weekend.

As of Monday, at least 97 people have died, according to the Preliminary Committee of the Sudanese doctors’ union. Earlier on Sunday, the World Health Organization estimated that more than 1,126 people had been injured.

The WHO says hospitals suffer from a shortage of specialized medical staff, including anesthesiologists. “Water and power outages are affecting the functioning of health facilities, and fuel shortages for hospital generators were also reported,” WHO said on Sunday.

In the CNN interview, Dagalo blamed the military for starting the conflict, stating that the RSF “had to continue fighting to defend itself”.

He speculated that the army chief and rival, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, had lost control of the armed forces. Asked whether his aim was to rule Sudan, Dagalo said he had “no such intention” and that there should be a civilian government.

Services stopped, evacuation began

The conflict has put countries and other organizations on high alert, with the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) temporarily halting all operations in Sudan after three employees were killed in clashes on Saturday.

United Nations and other humanitarian facilities in Darfur have been looted, while a WFP-managed plane was badly damaged by gunfire in Khartoum, hampering WFP’s ability to transport aid and workers domestically, the international aid agency said. .

Qatar Airways announced on Sunday that it was temporarily suspending flights to and from Khartoum due to the closure of its airport and airspace.

On Sunday, Dagalo told CNN that the RSF controlled the airport, as well as several other government buildings in the capital.

Meanwhile, Mexico is trying to evacuate its citizens from Sudan, and the country’s foreign minister said Sunday it was working to “speed up” their departure.

The US Embassy in Sudan said Sunday there were no plans for a government-coordinated evacuation of Americans in the country, citing the closure of Khartoum airport. He advised US citizens to stay indoors and take shelter in place, adding that he would make an announcement “if the evacuation of a US citizen is necessary.”

The fresh clashes have sparked widespread calls for peace and negotiations. The head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki, is due to arrive in Khartoum on Monday in an attempt to stop the fighting.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly also called for an immediate ceasefire.

“The people in Sudan want the military back in the barracks, they want democracy, they want a civilian-led government. Sudan needs to get back on that path,” Blinken said, speaking on the sidelines of the G7 foreign ministers talks in Japan on Monday.

The United Nations political mission in Sudan said the country’s two warring factions had agreed to a “proposal”, though it was not clear what that meant.

Power struggle in Sudan

At the center of the clashes is a power struggle between the two military leaders, Dagalo and Burhan.

The two worked together to overthrow Sudan’s ousted President Omar al-Bashir in 2019 and played a key role in the 2021 military coup, which ended a power-sharing agreement between military and civilian groups.

The army has been in charge of Sudan ever since, with Burhan and Dagalo at its command.

But the recent talks have caused a rift in the alliance between the two men. Negotiations have sought to integrate the RSF into the country’s armed forces, as part of efforts to transition to civilian rule.

Sources in the Sudanese civil movement and Sudanese military sources told CNN that highlights of debate include the timetable for the troop merging, the status given to RSF officers in the future hierarchy and whether RSF troops should be under the command of a chief. army, not the commander-in-chief of Sudan, who is currently Burhan.