The 72-hour ceasefire between the two generals vying for power in Sudan went into effect on Tuesday, but witnesses and the UN reported renewed hostilities after days of fighting that left hundreds dead.
“The pause has not been fully respected, with attacks against bases, attempts to gain ground, airstrikes and explosions in different areas of the capital,” the UN representative in the country, Volker Perthes, told the Security Council.
Perthes said he was in contact with the two feuding generals: army chief Abdel Fatah al-Burhan and his former ally Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who heads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (FAR).
“There are still no clear signs that any of them are ready to negotiate seriously,” Perthes said.
Witnesses in the capital Khartoum reported army shelling of FAR positions and vehicles, which in turn responded with machine gun fire.
In a video, the paramilitary group claimed to have taken control of a refinery and a power plant 70 km north of the capital, with a population of five million.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had announced a three-day truce in Sudan starting at midnight on Tuesday after “intense negotiations” between the two forces.
A local ceasefire has also been observed in the north Darfur region in the west of the country for several days, the UN reported.
But witnesses told AFP they had seen clashes between the army and the FAR in Wad Banda, in West Kordofan, a border region further south.
As in previous truce announcements, both sides accuse each other of not respecting it.
Clashes that broke out on April 15 have already left more than 459 dead and more than 4,000 injured, according to UN agencies.
The Forces for Freedom and Change, the main civilian bloc that the two now-facing generals ousted from power in a coup in 2021, trusted that the truce would allow “dialogue in the modalities of a permanent ceasefire.”
The World Health Organization warned of “elevated” biological risks after one of the belligerents occupied a laboratory, where there are pathogens of measles, cholera and polio.
In videos posted on the internet, the authenticity of which has not been verified, you can see businesses burned down, buildings devastated and civilians wandering through the rubble.
According to lawyers, during the fighting there was at least one escape from a prison. Other information points to another escape in the Kober prison, where the former dictator Omar al Bashir, claimed by the International Criminal Court, is incarcerated.
A former Bashir aide, Ahmed Harun, also persecuted by the ICC, said in a message to Sudanese television that a large number of Bashir regime officials escaped.
“We stayed in the Kober detention center, under the crossfire of this battle, for nine days” even as the jail was emptied of guards and prisoners, and “now we have taken responsibility for our protection,” he said.
The location of Bashir, accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, could not be independently established.
Before the ceasefire, the foreign capitals managed to negotiate with the two belligerents for the evacuation of their citizens.
Hundreds of citizens from the European Union, China, the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom and several Arab countries were able to leave.
In addition, some 700 employees of the UN, embassies and international organizations “were evacuated to Port Sudan”, a city on the shores of the Red Sea, the United Nations said.
The UN Refugee Agency estimated that up to 270,000 people could flee to Chad and South Sudan.
Those who fail to escape the crossfire are trying to survive without water or electricity, with food shortages and internet and phone cuts.
This spiral “risks a catastrophic conflagration inside Sudan that could engulf the entire region and beyond,” Antonio Guterres said.
“As foreigners, who are able to, flee, the impact of violence on an already critical humanitarian situation in Sudan is compounded,” the UN warned.
Caught in the crossfire, its agencies and many other humanitarian organizations have suspended their activities in the country.
Five aid workers, including four from the UN, were killed and, according to the doctors’ union, nearly three-quarters of hospitals are out of service.
The dispute between Burhan and Daglo, who have allied to oust civilians from power, stemmed from plans to integrate the FAR into the regular army.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
