From New York Times, I'm Michael Bavaro.

This is a daily.

Over the past week in Sudan, a closely watched plan to create a democracy has instead turned

into a deadly civil war.

Today, my colleague, Declan Walsh, on the personal rivalry at the center of the conflict.

It's Monday, April 24th.

So Declan, describe the scene in Sudan's capital over the past few days.

Well, Michael, it started for me with a text message.

It was last Saturday morning, I was at home.

I got a message from a friend of mine in Cartoum, which is the capital of Sudan.

And the message said, war has just erupted in Cartoum.

Wow.

And then he went on to explain that his house is about 400 meters from a military camp in the city that had come under attack.

And he sent me a clip of a recording he'd made out the window of his house.

And the clip went, pup, pup, pup, with gunfire.

And I guess that was the starting gun for what has become this crazy descent into violence that has consumed the capital of Sudan and spread across the entire country.

Within the hours that followed that, everything moves incredibly quickly.

There is fighting around the presidential palace, the headquarters of the military,

at the international airport passengers are taking cover on the ground of the terminal because there's fighting and bombs outside.

You get warplanes that start quizzing over the city, firing rockets and dropping bombs.

And you get these small street-to-street battles flaring everywhere in residential neighborhoods on the main bridges that cross the Nile and the city everywhere.

And over the last week, this temple has continued.

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