A damaged car and buildings are seen in the central market during clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Force and the army in Khartoum north of Sudan, April 27, 2023. , photo credit: Reuters
The Sudanese army carried out airstrikes on paramilitary forces in the capital Khartoum on Thursday, while deadly fighting flared up in Darfur as a US-brokered ceasefire now entered its last full day.
Late on Wednesday, the army said it had agreed to talks in Juba, the capital of neighboring South Sudan, to extend a three-day ceasefire that was due to expire on Friday “at the initiative of the East African regional bloc IGAD”.
There have been several attempts at a ceasefire since 15 April between Sudan’s regular army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by deputy rival Mohammed Hamdan Daglo. Everyone has failed.
Witnesses said fighting continued despite a US-brokered ceasefire that went into effect on Tuesday, with warplanes patrolling the skies over the capital’s northern suburbs as fighters on the ground unleashed artillery and heavy machine gun fire. was exchanged.
The army said Burhan on Wednesday agreed to the IGAD’s proposal to extend the ceasefire by another 72 hours.
RSF’s response to the proposal remains unclear.
At least 512 people have been killed and 4,193 wounded in the fighting, according to health ministry figures, although the actual death toll is likely to be much higher.
The doctors’ union said at least eight civilians were killed in Khartoum alone on Wednesday, despite the ceasefire.
The union said on Thursday that more than two-thirds of hospitals in the country were out of service, including 14 that were killed during the fighting.
Beyond the capital, fighting has intensified in the provinces, particularly in the war-torn western region of Darfur.
Witnesses said fighting between the army and the RSF continued for a second day in Jinina, the capital of West Darfur. He said civilians were seen running towards the border with Chad.
On Wednesday, the United Nations humanitarian agency reported killings, looting and arson in Djina.
“An estimated 50,000 severely malnourished children have had access to nutritional aid disrupted because of the fighting,” it said in a statement.
Heavy fighting has trapped many civilians in their homes, where they face severe shortages of food, water and electricity.
The UN has warned that as many as 270,000 people could flee to Sudan’s poorer neighbors South Sudan and Chad.
Other Sudanese have sought refuge in Egypt to the north and Ethiopia to the east, but both involve long and potentially dangerous journeys.
Speaking on the Egyptian border, Ashraf, a 50-year-old refugee, called on the warring sides to “end the war … because this is your own struggle, not the Sudanese people”.
In Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast, Syrian evacuee Khalil Ibrahim told AFP: “We just want to get away from this war.”
Cambridge University academic Sharath Srinivasan warned that the mass movement of people across Sudan’s borders threatened to destabilize already fragile governments in neighboring countries.
“If an armed confrontation between these two forces breaks out – or worse, if it spills over into other armed rebel groups across the country – it could become one of the worst humanitarian crises in the region and risks spreading.” Could,” he told US news outlet Politics.
Foreign governments have taken advantage of the fragile ceasefire to organize road convoys, aircraft and ships to evacuate thousands of their citizens, but some have warned that their evacuation efforts are dependent on a reduction in the fighting’s grip.
A Saudi evacuation ship docked in the Red Sea port of Jeddah on Thursday carrying 187 Sudanese evacuees from 25 countries, including the United States, Russia and Turkey, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said.
The ministry said it was the eighth such crossing organized by Saudi authorities since the start of the fighting and brought the total number of people evacuated so far in the kingdom to 2,544, of whom only 119 are Saudis.
As chaos grips Sudan, there have been several jailbreaks, including at the high-security Keber prison where top aides of ousted dictator Omar al-Bashir were held.
The escapees include Ahmed Haroon, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the 2003 Darfur conflict.
Harun’s escape raised fears of Bashir’s loyalists becoming involved in the ongoing fighting.
The military said the ousted dictator was not among the escapees, but was taken to a military hospital before the fighting began.
Daglo’s RSF emerged from Janjaweed militias accused of committing atrocities against civilians during Bashir’s brutal suppression of ethnic minority rebels in Darfur in the mid-2000s.
Bashir was ousted by the army in April 2019 following civilian protests, raising hopes of a transition to democracy.
The two generals seized power together in a 2021 coup, but later fell out, most recently over the RSF’s planned integration into the regular army.