Last update: May 03, 2023, 6:46 PM IST
The conflict has created a humanitarian crisis, with around 100,000 people forced to flee with little food or water to neighboring countries, the United Nations said. (File photo: AFP)
Airstrikes were heard in Khartoum on Wednesday, a Reuters witness said, even as warring factions agreed to a new seven-day ceasefire from Thursday, weakening the chances of a lasting truce .
UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Wednesday he was seeking assurances from warring factions in Sudan to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid hours after airstrikes in Khartoum undermined a new ceasefire.
“We will always need agreements and arrangements to allow the movement of personnel and supplies,” he said from Port Sudan, where many fled as the army and support forces Rapide (RSF) had been fighting for three weeks.
“We will have to have an agreement at the highest level and very publicly and we will have to translate these commitments into local arrangements that can be counted on,” he told reporters via video link from Port Sudan.
Airstrikes were heard in Khartoum on Wednesday, a Reuters witness said, even as warring factions agreed to a new seven-day ceasefire from Thursday, weakening the chances of a lasting truce .
The conflict has created a humanitarian crisis, with around 100,000 people forced to flee with little food or water to neighboring countries, the United Nations said.
Aid deliveries have been blocked in a country where around a third of the population already relied on humanitarian aid. A wider disaster could be brewing as Sudan’s impoverished neighbors grapple with the influx of refugees.
Previous ceasefire agreements between the army and a paramilitary force, whose power struggle erupted into conflict in mid-April, have lasted from 24 to 72 hours, but neither has been fully respected. .
Tens of thousands of people have left the Khartoum region and its neighboring towns, fearing both airstrikes and paramilitary RSF soldiers.
Caught between army airstrikes overhead and RSF soldiers on the ground, many citizens feel compelled to take sides.
“If I hear the (army) airstrikes, I feel safe because at least I know the RSF won’t come into my house,” said Salma, a resident of Omdurman, who said the fierce fighting kept her awake at night. “I protested against Bashir and against the military regime, but for now they are protecting me.”
THIRD WEEK OF FIGHTS
South Sudan’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that mediation championed by its chairman, Salva Kiir, led to the two sides agreeing a one-week truce from Thursday to May 11 and appointing envoys for the talks. of peace. The current ceasefire was due to expire on Wednesday.
It was unclear, however, how army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF chief General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo would proceed.
Army planes bombarded RSF units entrenched in residential areas of the capital region.
The conflict has also spread to Sudan’s West Darfur region, where the RSF emerged from tribal militias that fought alongside government forces to crush rebels in a brutal 20-year-old civil war.
Army and RSF commanders, who shared power in an internationally-backed transition to free elections and civilian government, showed no signs of backing down, but neither side seems able to get a quick victory.
The fighting, now in its third week, has engulfed Khartoum – one of Africa’s biggest cities – and killed hundreds. Sudan’s health ministry reported on Tuesday that 550 people died and 4,926 were injured.
Foreign governments were ending evacuation operations that were sending thousands of their citizens home. Britain said its last flight would leave Port Sudan on the Red Sea on Wednesday and urged any remaining Britons wishing to leave to get there.
Read all the latest news here
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)