Fire engulfs 18-story tower block as rival forces battle for the 6th month in Sudan's capital

An 18-story building in the centre of Sudan's capital was engulfed in flames Sunday as fighting between the military and a rival paramilitary force enters its sixth month.

The Greater Nile Petroleum Oil Company Tower, situated in the centre of Khartoum, caught fire early Sunday during clashes between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, according to Sudanese media. It's unclear how the fire started or if anyone was killed.

Online footage of the blaze showed clouds of dark smoke rising from the burnt-out glass-panelled tower, one of the tallest buildings in the Sudanese capital.

Sudan has been rocked by violence since mid-April, when tensions between the country’s military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, burst into open fighting.

The conflict has reduced Khartoum to an urban warzone. In the Greater Khartoum area, RSF troops have commandeered civilian homes and turned them into operational bases, while the military has responded by bombing the residential areas, rights groups and activists say.

In the western Darfur region, the conflict has morphed into ethnic violence, with the RSF and allied Arab militias attacking ethnic African groups, according to rights groups and the United Nations.

The conflict has killed more than 4,000 people, according to August figures from the United Nations. However, the real toll is almost certainly much higher, doctors and activists say.

• Handwritten letters a lifeline in war-devastated Darfur