Race to extend Sudan truce amid exodus
● Gunfire still heard in Khartoum as many foreigners remain trapped
The US and African nations were racing to secure an extension of a ceasefire in Sudan yesterday, with the Sudanese army giving an initial nod to a proposal calling for talks even as heavy fighting continued.
Hundreds of people have been killed in nearly two weeks of conflict between the army and a rival paramilitary force — the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — which are locked in a power struggle that threatens to destabilise the wider region.
An RSF statement accused the army of attacking its forces yesterday and spreading false rumours, making no reference to the proposal which the army said came from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an African regional bloc.
The sound of airstrikes and anti-aircraft fire could be heard in Khartoum and the nearby cities of Omdurman and Bahri, witnesses and journalists said.
The existing three-day ceasefire brought a lull in fighting, without completely halting it, but was due to expire at midnight and many foreign nationals remained trapped in the country despite an exodus over the past few days.
The army late on Wednesday said its leader, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, had given initial approval to the plan to extend the truce for a further 72 hours and to send an army envoy to the South Sudan capital, Juba, for talks.
The military said the presidents of South Sudan, Kenya and Djibouti worked on a proposal that included extending the truce and talks between the two forces.
“Burhan thanked the IGAD and expressed an initial approval to that,” the army said.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken and AU Commission chair Moussa Faki Mahamat discussed working together to create a sustainable end to the fighting, the state department said on Wednesday.
At least 512 people have been killed and close to 4,200 wounded by the fighting since April 15.
The crisis has sent growing numbers of refugees across Sudan’s borders. The UN refugee agency has estimated 270,000 people could flee into South Sudan and Chad alone.
The conflict has destroyed hospitals and limited food distribution in the vast nation where a third of the 46-million people were already reliant on humanitarian aid.
An estimated 50,000 acutely malnourished children have had treatment disrupted due to the conflict, and those hospitals still functioning are facing shortages of medical supplies, power and water, according to a UN update on Wednesday.
Deadly clashes broke out in Geneina in West Darfur on Tuesday and Wednesday, resulting in looting and civilian deaths and raising concerns about an escalation of ethnic tensions, the update said.
France said yesterday it had evacuated more people from Sudan, not only French nationals but also Britons, Americans, Canadians, Ethiopians, Dutch, Italians and Swedes.
Britain said it might not be able to continue evacuating its nationals when the ceasefire ended, and they should try to reach British flights out of Sudan immediately.
Foreigners evacuated from Khartoum have described bodies littering streets, buildings on fire and residential areas turned into battlefields.
Tension had been building for months between Sudan’s army and the RSF, which together toppled a civilian government in a 2021 coup.
A final deal on a new plan to launch a transition towards elections and a civilian government was due to be signed earlier this month, on the fourth anniversary of the overthrow of long-ruling Islamist autocrat Omar al-Bashir, 79.
The army said al-Bashir had been transferred from Khartoum’s Kober prison to a military hospital before hostilities started. —