KHARTOUM: Shelling and gunfire resumed Sunday in the Sudanese capital, witnesses said, after the end of a 24-hour ceasefire that had given civilians rare respite from nearly two months of war.

Deadly fighting has raged in the northeast African country since mid-April, when army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, turned on each other.

The latest in a series of ceasefire agreements enabled civilians trapped in the capital Khartoum to venture outside and stock up on food and other essential supplies.

But only 10 minutes after it ended at 6:00 am (0400 GMT) on Sunday, the city was rocked again by shelling and clashes, witnesses told AFP.

Heavy artillery fire was heard across greater Khartoum, with residents also reporting air strikes and anti-aircraft missiles.

Fighting in the capital’s south sent “shells landing in citizens’ homes,” a pro-democracy neighbourhood group reported.

The one-day lull was “like a dream” that evaporated, said Nasreddin Ahmed, a resident of south Khartoum who was awoken by the renewed fighting.

Asmaa al-Rih, who lives in the capital’s northern suburbs, lamented the “return of terror” with “rockets and shells shaking the walls of houses” once again.

Clouds of smoke were also seen billowing for a fifth successive day from the Al-Shajara oil and gas facility near the Yarmouk military plant in Khartoum.