Millions of Sudanese have been trapped in shelling and gunfire since the outbreak on April 15 of a ruthless power struggle between General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane’s army and his number two, General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, who commands the feared paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (FSR).
But hours before a three-day ceasefire expired at midnight (2200 GMT) on Sunday April 30, rival forces signaled its extension. The latter was concluded “under the mediation of the United States and Saudi Arabia”, the army said in a statement. Half-hearted news since the truce had been little respected until then, even if it allowed the evacuation of foreigners and to continue negotiations.
A first plane loaded with eight tonnes of aid and which should be able to treat 1,500 people landed on Sunday in Port Sudan, 850 km east of Khartoum, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The war left 528 dead and 4,599 injured, according to widely underestimated official figures. Both sides accuse each other of violating the truce.
Sunday evening, the fighting continues and fighter jets continue to fly over Khartoum and Omdurman, its northern suburbs, according to witnesses on the spot. “There are very violent fights and gunshots,” a witness told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
As the fighting has raged for more than two weeks, residents of the capital, when not fleeing, remain barricaded, trying to survive despite shortages of food, water and electricity. Authorities in Khartoum have given “furlough until further notice” to officials in the capital, while police say they are deploying to the city to prevent looting.
Most of the country’s hospitals are out of service. For those still functioning, “the situation is untenable” because there is a lack of equipment, Majzoub Saad Ibrahim, a doctor in Ad-Damir, north of Khartoum, told AFP.
According to the UN, 75,000 people are internally displaced. At least 20,000 have fled to Chad, and thousands more to South Sudan, Ethiopia and the Central African Republic. In total, up to 270,000 people could flee the fighting which affects 12 of the 18 states of this country of 45 million inhabitants, one of the poorest in the world.
Several countries, including France, Germany and the United States, evacuated their nationals and other foreigners. Canada, however, halted its evacuations “due to unsafe conditions”.
On the diplomatic front, Saudi Foreign Minister Fayçal ben Farhane received an emissary from General Burhane on Sunday. And neighboring Egypt called for an Arab League meeting on Monday to “discuss Sudan”.
For experts at the Carnegie Middle East Center, General Daglo is trying to buy time: “the longer he can hold his positions in Khartoum, the greater his weight will be at the negotiating table”.
According to the United Nations (UN), around 100 people have been killed since Monday in West Darfur, a region marked by the bloody civil war of the 2000s. The UN chief warned of a situation “ terrible” with “tribes now trying to arm themselves”.
As the humanitarian drama worsens, the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has stopped “almost all of (its) activities” because of the violence.
At the head of the Janjawid militiamen, General Daglo, known as “Hemedti”, had carried out the scorched earth policy in Darfur, on the orders of Omar al-Bashir, the former dictator overthrown in 2019 by the street.
The war that started in 2003 left about 300,000 dead and nearly 2.5 million displaced, according to the UN. The Janjawid officially gave birth in 2013 to the FSR, a paramilitary auxiliary to the army.
Today rivals, Generals Burhane and Daglo had nevertheless joined forces during the 2021 putsch to oust the civilians with whom they had shared power since the fall of Bashir. But differences then appeared and, for lack of agreement on the integration of the FSR into the army, degenerated into open war.
