When conflict flared in Khartoum almost a month ago, pitting Sudan's armed forces and their heavy weaponry against a paramilitary force born out of an agile but lightly-armed desert militia, it looked like it might prove a one-sided fight.
But the head of the army, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, swiftly found air power and artillery alone could not stop his rival's men, who were able to storm into Burhan's residence deep within army headquarters in the first hours of the conflict that erupted on April 15, a total of ten sources, from both sides of the conflict, told Reuters.
