Sudan's military launched air strikes on a paramilitary force's base near the capital in a bid to reassert control over the country on Sunday following clashes in which scores of combatants and at least 56 civilians were killed.

At the end of a day of heavy fighting, the army struck a base belonging to the government's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the city of Omdurman, which adjoins the capital Khartoum, eyewitnesses said late on Saturday.

The military and RSF, which analysts say is 100,000 strong, have been competing for power as political factions negotiate forming a transitional government after a 2021 military coup.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, eyewitness heard the sound of heavy artillery firing across Khartoum, Omdurman and nearby Bahri, and there was also gunfire heard in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan, where there had been no earlier reports of fighting.

The Sudanese Doctors' Union reported at least 56 civilians had been killed and 595 people, including combatants, had been wounded since the fighting erupted on Saturday.

Image - Reuters