Africa

Warring factions in Sudan agree new 72-hour ceasefire as conflict enters third month

More than 3,000 people have been killed and 6,000 injured since the conflict erupted in mid-April

Smoke rises over Khartoum where fighting continued during the week. Photograph: AP

Sun Jun 18 2023 - 09:01

Sudan’s warring factions have agreed to a new 72-hour ceasefire which started at 6am local time on Sunday, mediators Saudi Arabia and the United States said in a joint statement.

“The parties agreed that during the ceasefire they will refrain from prohibited movements, attacks, use of military aircraft or drones, artillery strikes, reinforcement of positions and resupply of forces, and will refrain from seeking military advantage during the ceasefire,” the statement read.

Fighting between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is entering its third month with neither side gaining a clear advantage.

The army has the advantage of air power in Khartoum and its neighbouring cities Omdurman and Bahri, while the RSF has embedded itself in residential neighbourhoods. On Friday and Saturday the army appeared to ramp up air strikes, hitting several residential neighbourhoods.

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More than 3,000 people have been killed and 6,000 injured since the conflict erupted in mid-April, the country’s health minister Haitham Ibrahim told Saudi-owned al-Hadath TV on Saturday.

Ibrahim said only half of Khartoum’s 130 hospitals were still operating and all the hospitals in West Darfur state were out of service.

The war has displaced 2.2 million Sudanese and sent the war-weary Darfur region into a “humanitarian calamity,” the United Nations said.

In a speech posted by the army on Friday, top general Yassir Al-Atta warned people to stay away from homes the RSF had occupied. “Because at this point, we will attack them anywhere,” he said to cheers. “Between us and these rebels are bullets,” he said, appearing to dismiss mediation attempts.

The Khartoum health ministry confirmed a report by local volunteers on Saturday that 17 people, including five children, were killed in the Mayo area of southern Khartoum and 25 homes were destroyed.

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The strike was the latest in a series of air and artillery attacks on the poor and densely populated district of the city where most residents are unable to afford the cost of leaving.

Late on Friday, the local resistance committee said 13 people had been killed by shelling in al-Lammab in western Khartoum, calling the neighbourhood an “operations zone”. Residents reported air strikes elsewhere in southern and western Khartoum into the afternoon.

The RSF on Saturday said it brought down an army warplane in the Nile, west of Khartoum.

Plumes of smoke could be seen rising near fuel depots in southern Khartoum, a resident said and video shared with Reuters showed.

Air strikes in central and southern Omdurman continued from Friday into Saturday, impacting homes and killing one person, according to the local committee in the Beit al-Mal neighbourhood.

Residents said three members of a family were killed in the Sharq el-Nil district after an air strike on Friday.

In El-Geneina, in west Darfur, more than 270,000 have fled across the border to Chad, after more than 1,000 people were killed by attacks that residents and the US have blamed on the RSF and allied militias.

A Chadian military source and a local official in Adre, Chad, where many of those fleeing have sought refuge, denied reports that Chadian soldiers had clashed with the RSF.

[ Sudan: More than 1m people may flee country as conflict risks peace in region, says UN ]

Chadian president General Mahamat Idriss Deby visited the area to witness the unfolding humanitarian crisis there and ensure the closure of the border, the presidency said.

Within Khartoum, the war has cut off the millions who remain from electricity, water, and access to healthcare, and residents have had to ration food. They report widespread looting. – Reuters

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