Global Courant 2023-04-27 06:40:44
The Sudanese military has expressed a willingness to extend a shaky ceasefire for another 72 hours amid ongoing fighting with rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on the outskirts of the capital Khartoum.
The army said late Wednesday that its leader, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, had given initial approval to a plan to extend the ceasefire — which expires late Thursday — by another 72 hours and send an army envoy to Juba, the south. to steer. Sudan capital, for talks.
There was no immediate response from the RSF to the proposal from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional bloc.
The military said the presidents of South Sudan, Kenya and Djibouti were working on a proposal that would include an extension of the ceasefire and talks between the two forces.
“Burhan thanked IGAD and initially expressed his approval,” the army statement said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat also discussed ways to work together to end the fighting in Sudan, the US State Department said in a statement on Wednesday. declaration.
African Union leadership remained “essential to put pressure on the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces to immediately halt military operations and allow unimpeded humanitarian access,” it added.
Some of the heaviest fighting on Wednesday was in Omdurman, a town on the northern outskirts of Khartoum where the army fought RSF reinforcements from other regions of Sudan, the Reuters news agency said.
RSF fighters brandish their weapons in the streets of Khartoum’s East Nile district (Rapid Support Forces (RSF) via AFP)
The AFP news agency also reported that warplanes flew over Khartoum’s northern suburbs, drawing heavy anti-aircraft fire from the paramilitaries. In the south, machine gun fire was reported near one of the homes of RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti.
At least 512 people have been killed in airstrikes and artillery attacks since fighting broke out in Sudan on April 15. Thousands have been injured and hospitals destroyed, and many residents – some on foot – tried to flee the unrest.
One-third of the country’s 46 million people depended on humanitarian aid even before the violence began.
‘People are suffering’
The World Health Organization said only 16 percent of health facilities in Khartoum were functioning and predicted “many more deaths” from disease and shortages of food, water and medical services.
Treatment for an estimated 50,000 acutely malnourished children has been disrupted as a result of the conflict and hospitals that are still functioning are facing shortages of medical supplies, power and water, the United Nations said in an update on Wednesday.
The crisis has sent a growing number of refugees across Sudan’s borders, with the UN refugee agency estimating that 270,000 people could flee to South Sudan and Chad alone.
Foreigners evacuated from Khartoum describe bodies lying in the streets, buildings burning, residential areas turned into battlefields, and youths roaming the streets armed with large knives.
“It was horrific,” said Thanassis Pagoulatos, an 80-year-old Greek owner of the Acropole Hotel in Khartoum, after arriving in Athens where emotional relatives hugged him.
“It has been more than 10 days without electricity, without water and five days with almost no food,” he added, describing the shootings and bombings. “Really, the people are suffering, the Sudanese people.”
There was fighting in the northern suburbs of Khartoum on Wednesday as local residents tried to escape the violence (Reuters)
The UN representative for Sudan, Volker Perthes, told the Security Council at a meeting on Wednesday that “both warring sides have fought with contempt for the laws and norms of war”.
Perthes, who has remained in Sudan, said they “attacked densely populated areas without regard for civilians, hospitals or even vehicles transporting the injured and sick”.
Alnour Mohammed Ahmed, who works as a builder in Khartoum, said people were struggling.
“Why didn’t the officials care about the Sudanese people and their suffering?” Ahmed was quoted by AFP.
Shadows of the past
Sudan was moving towards civilian rule as hostilities broke out between the military and the RSF and the two sides missed an April deadline under the internationally backed plan to begin the transition to democracy.
Civilian groups worry the violence will give the army a chance to entrench its rule and restore influence to those linked to Omar al-Bashir, who was deposed by the two generals whose forces are now fighting in the streets of Khartoum and across Sudan, after massive protests in 2019.
“This war, fueled by the ousted regime, will bring the country to collapse,” said the Sudanese Forces of Freedom and Change (FCC), a political group leading the plan to transition to civilian rule.
The military has said that 79-year-old al-Bashir, who is wanted on war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, has been transferred from Kober prison in Khartoum to a military hospital, along with at least four of his former officials, and was under guard. He also faces Sudanese charges related to the 1989 coup that brought him to power.
Meanwhile, Ahmed Haroun, who has ties to al-Bashir, announced on Tuesday that he and others had escaped from prison.
Haroun is also wanted by the ICC for alleged war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity in the western region of Darfur from 2003 to 2018. According to the UN, about 300,000 people died in the conflict and 2.5 million people were displaced from their homes .
The ICC prosecutor’s office said it was monitoring developments, but added that there had been no independent confirmation of the status of the Kober detainees.
