US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken announced Monday (April 24) that rival generals in the conflict in Sudan have agreed to a three-day nationwide ceasefire in an attempt to end the violence.
“After intense negotiations (…), the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have agreed to implement a ceasefire throughout the country from midnight on April 24, to last sixty -twelve o’clock,” Blinken said in a statement. The FSR confirms and announces in a press release a “truce dedicated to the opening of humanitarian corridors and the facilitation of the movement of civilians”. The army has so far not communicated anything on this subject.
Khaled Omar Youssef, spokesperson for the Forces of Freedom and Change (FLC, Sudan’s historic civil bloc) told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that he welcomed “American mediation, for the implementation place of this humanitarian truce. “It will lead to a dialogue on the modalities of a definitive ceasefire”, he specifies, while the American secretary of state indicates working with the allies and the partners of the United States with a view to the establishment of a “commission” to negotiate a permanent cessation of hostilities in Sudan. He spoke on Monday with his Kenyan counterpart about the conflict in Sudan, and has recently increased exchanges with rival generals, as well as with countries in the region and the African Union.
The United Nations (UN) had called earlier on Monday 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 military and RSF to fully and immediately respect this ceasefire,” Blinken warned.
More than 420 dead and 3,700 injured, according to WHO
Explosions, air raids and shootings have not stopped in Khartoum since April 15, driving the exodus of thousands of inhabitants of the capital plunged into chaos. Those who cannot flee try to survive, deprived of water and electricity, subject to food shortages and internet and telephone cuts. On Monday, the doctors’ union issued an urgent appeal: “Several districts of Khartoum are bombarded, there are civilian deaths and around fifty seriously injured, all nearby doctors must go there as soon as possible”.
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.
Many countries, including France, are carrying out repatriation operations for their nationals. More than 1,000 European Union (EU) nationals were evacuated. “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.
Foreign capitals have managed to negotiate passages with the two belligerents: the army of General Abdel Fattah Al-Bourhane, de facto ruler of Sudan, and his deputy who became his rival, General Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitaries of the RSF .
Around 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.
Concerns over the fate of the Sudanese who remained behind
Despite these departures 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. Experts and humanitarians are now worried about the fate of the Sudanese. “I fear for their future,” admitted Norwegian Ambassador Endre Stiansen.
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 figures in normal times, the kilo of rice or the liter of gasoline are now exchanged 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.
“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. Sudanese have already fled to Egypt and South Sudan, which itself has 800,000 refugees in Sudan. Among them, women and children are now crossing in the other direction, according to the UN. At least 20,000 Sudanese have taken refuge in Chad, bordering Darfur.
Washington concerned about the presence of the Russian group Wagner
Also on Monday, witnesses told AFP that thousands of people had headed for the Chadian border, fleeing “fighting” in Al-Geneina, Darfur. This region, the poorest in the country, was ravaged in the 2000s by a war ordered by the dictator Omar Al-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.
Earlier Monday Washington expressed “very serious concerns” over the presence in Sudan of the Russian mercenary group, Wagner, which he said is bringing “where it is present its share of additional death and destruction”. . News reports citing officials reported weapons supplied by Wagner to the FSR.
