A ceasefire announced by the head of American diplomacy came into effect Tuesday at midnight in Sudan, after 10 days of deadly fighting.
“After intense negotiations over the past 48 hours, the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have agreed to implement a nationwide ceasefire effective midnight April 24 (Monday 10 p.m. GMT), which should last 72 hours,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on Monday.
The FSR confirmed and announced a “truce dedicated to the opening of humanitarian corridors and to facilitate the movement of civilians”. The army has so far not communicated anything on this subject.
Khaled Omar Youssef, spokesman for the Forces of Freedom and Change (FLC), Sudan’s historic civilian bloc, told AFP that he welcomed “American mediation, for the establishment of this truce humanitarian”.
“It will give rise to a dialogue on the modalities of a definitive ceasefire”, he specifies, while the American Secretary of State indicates that he is working with the allies and partners of the United States with a view to the establishment of a “commission” to negotiate a permanent cessation of hostilities in Sudan.
The UN had earlier Monday called for an end to the fighting to “steer Sudan away from the precipice”. And if for several days, the two belligerents had already announced that they would accept breaks in the fighting, each time they accused each other of having broken the truce.
This time, “during this period, the United States expects the army and the FSR to fully and immediately respect this ceasefire,” warned Mr. Blinken.
Explosions, air raids and shootings have not stopped since April 15 in Khartoum, pushing thousands of residents from the capital plunged into chaos to exodus. Those who cannot flee try to survive, deprived of water and electricity, subject to food shortages and internet and telephone cuts.
The fighting has already left more than 420 dead and 3,700 injured, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The violence in this East African country, one of the poorest in the world, risks “invading the whole region and beyond”, warned the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres.
Despite the departure of many diplomats and foreign citizens, Volker Perthes, the head of the UN mission which has been trying for four years to obtain from the military in power a transition to democracy, announced that he would remain in Sudan.
Foreign capitals have managed to negotiate passages with the two belligerents: the army of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, de facto ruler of Sudan, and his deputy who has become his rival, General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, who commands the paramilitaries of the rapid support (FSR).
More than 1,000 EU nationals were evacuated.
Tokyo announced on Tuesday that it had temporarily closed its embassy, ??with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida adding that “the evacuation of all Japanese who were in Khartoum and hoped to be evacuated no later than yesterday” has been completed.
About 700 international staff from the UN, NGOs and embassies “have been evacuated to Port Sudan”, the UN said. Dozens of other aid workers were evacuated to Chad from western Darfur, the region hardest hit by fighting with Khartoum.
“A first group” of Chinese, several dozen South Africans and hundreds of nationals of Arab countries also left, by road, sea or air.
Most of the foreigners evacuated are diplomatic personnel, such as those from the United States and the United Kingdom. Many nationals are still waiting for a place in the long convoys of white cars or buses that leave continuously from Khartoum.
“As foreigners who can flee, the impact of the violence on an already critical humanitarian situation is worsening,” warns the UN, whose agencies, like many humanitarian organizations, have suspended their activities.
Five aid workers have been killed and, according to the doctors’ union, nearly three-quarters of hospitals are out of service.
Both sides accuse each other of attacking prisons to get hundreds of detainees out and of looting homes and factories. Clashes erupted near several banks.
In a country where inflation is already in three digits in normal times, the kilo of rice or the liter of gasoline are now traded at gold prices.
But fuel is the key to escape to Egypt, 1,000 kilometers to the north, or to reach Port-Sudan and hope to get on a boat.
Sudanese have already fled to Egypt and South Sudan, which has 800,000 refugees in Sudan. Among them, women and children are now crossing in the other direction, according to the UN. More than 20,000 Sudanese have taken refuge in Chad, bordering Darfur.
This region, the poorest in the country, was ravaged in the 2000s by a war ordered by the dictator Omar el-Bashir, ousted in 2019, and led in particular by the Janjawid militiamen, from which the FSR originated.
The war had been simmering for weeks between the two rival generals, who had joined forces to oust civilians from power during the 2021 putsch, then ending the democratic transition, but who failed to agree on the integration of FSR into regular troops.
25/04/2023 03:38:17 – Khartoum (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
