‘We’re living in terror’: nightmare in Sudan as peace talks collapse
●Regular army set for ‘massive offensive’ in Khartoum ●No sign of paramilitary retreat
Sudan’s warring parties fought in Khartoum on Friday after the collapse of talks to maintain a ceasefire and ease a humanitarian crisis.
The regular army said it had brought reinforcements to the capital from other parts of Sudan to participate in “operations in the Khartoum area.”
Sudan analyst Kholood Khair said the army was “expected to launch a massive offensive” to clear the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces from the streets. Residents of Khartoum and
Omdurman across the Nile said the army had resumed airstrikes and was using more artillery, but there was no sign that the paramilitaries were retreating from streets and homes they had occupied.
“We are suffering so much from this war. Since this morning there have been sounds of violence. We’re living in terror. It is a real nightmare,” said Shehab Al-Din Abdalrahman, 31, in a southern district of Khartoum.
Seven weeks of warfare between the army and the paramilitaries have smashed up parts of central Khartoum, threatened to destabilize the wider region, displaced 1.2 million people inside Sudan and
sent another 400,000 into neighboring states.
Saudi Arabia and the US suspended truce talks after a ceasefire they had mediated fell apart, and accused both sides of occupying homes, businesses and hospitals, and carrying out airstrikes, attacks and banned military movements.
The army said on Friday it was surprised by the suspension of negotiations after it had made proposals for implementing the agreement, and blaming the paramilitaries for breaching the truce. The Rapid Support Forces blamed the army for the collapse of the talks. Outside Khartoum, the worst fighting has been in the Darfur region, where a civil war in which about 300,000 people have been killed has simmered since 2003. More than 100,000 people have fled militia attacks in Darfur in the west to neighboring Chad since the latest fighting began, and the numbers could double in the next three months, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said on Thursday.
Truce efforts aimed to deliver aid to civilians caught in a war that has brought deadly violence, disabled power and water networks, ruined hospitals and hampered food distribution.
Khartoum residents are bracing for more problems. “Since yesterday one telecom network has been down. Today another one is down. The power is out but the water has come back. It’s like they’re alternating forms of torture,” said Omer Ibrahim, who lives in Omdurman. Aid workers in Sudan say fierce fighting, rampant looting and reams of red tape are hampering aid efforts. The UN called on all parties to respect humanitarian work.