Eyewitnesses said air strikes hit southern Omdurman and northern Bahri, the two cities across the Nile from Khartoum that make up Sudan’s “triple capital”. Some of the strikes were near the state broadcaster in Omdurman, they said.
“Early this morning, we had heavy artillery fire, the whole house was shaking,” Sanaa Hassan, a 33-year-old in the al-Salha area of Omdurman, told Reuters by phone.
“It was scary, everyone was under their beds. This is a nightmare,” she said.
The RSF is based in residential areas, attracting almost constant air strikes by the regular forces.
Eyewitnesses in Khartoum said the situation was fairly calm, but some gunshots could be heard.
The conflict, which started on April 15, has forced almost 1.1 million people to flee inside and outside the country. The World Health Organization says some 705 people have died and at least 5,287 have been hurt.
Talks in the Saudi city of Jeddah sponsored by Saudi Arabia and the U.S. have failed, and the two fighting sides have blamed each other for breaking several ceasefire deals.
In recent days fighting on the ground has erupted again in the Darfur region, in Nyala and Zalenjei cities.
Both sides accused each other in statements on Friday night of starting the fighting in Nyala, one of the biggest cities in the country, which had been fairly peaceful for weeks because of a local truce.
A local activist told Reuters there were occasional gun battles near the main market by army headquarters on Saturday morning. Nearly 30 people have been killed in two days of fighting, activists say.
The war started in Khartoum after disagreements over plans to merge the RSF into the army and over who would command in the future under an internationally supported deal to move Sudan to democracy after decades of violent dictatorship.
On Friday, army leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan sacked RSF chief Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo as his deputy on the ruling council they headed. He replaced him with former rebel leader Malik Agar.
Agar said in a statement on Saturday that he took the position to help bring peace and support for the next farming season, which would cause widespread hunger if it failed.
He said he told the army that “peace is the only option and dialogue is the only way to peace.”
He also said to the RSF that “only one united army can bring stability,” but it is not clear how much sway he will have on either side.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) said late on Friday it would give more than $100 million in aid to Sudan and countries hosting Sudanese refugees, including food and medical help that is badly needed.