(Khartoum) Violent clashes between the Sudanese army and paramilitaries resumed Sunday in Khartoum, as a fragile three-day truce, which has never really been respected on the ground, is about to expire.
Millions of Sudanese have been trapped in bombardments and anti-aircraft fire since the April 15 outbreak of a ruthless power struggle between General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane’s army and his number two, General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, who commands the Rapid Support Forces (FSR), particularly feared paramilitaries.
Like the first truce, its extension has not silenced the guns in Khartoum and other regions, especially Darfur. That ceasefire expires Sunday at midnight (6 p.m. EST).
On Sunday, a first plane loaded with “eight tons” of aid including “surgical equipment” landed in Sudan where it should “treat 1,500 patients” in the country where most hospitals are out of service due to fighting. announced the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The plane, which is also carrying aid workers, took off from Amman and landed in Port Sudan, a coastal city 850 km east of Khartoum, according to the ICRC. Sudanese airspace has been closed since April 15 as fighting began at Khartoum airport.
This cargo contains “anesthetic products, dressings, suture material and other surgical items” “allowing to treat 1,500 wounded,” its regional director for Africa, Patrick Youssef, told reporters.
On Sunday, witnesses reported fighting near army headquarters in Khartoum and airstrikes in Omdurman, a northern suburb of the capital.
“There is very heavy fighting, gunshots ring out in my street every few minutes since dawn,” a witness told AFP.
Khartoum state authorities have announced that they are granting “leave until further notice” to civil servants in the capital, “given security conditions”, they said in a statement.
As the fighting enters its third week, residents of the capital, when not fleeing, remain barricaded, trying to survive shortages of food, water and electricity.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced within Sudan or made the arduous journeys to neighboring countries Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan.
Foreign governments have evacuated their nationals and citizens of other nationalities, especially from Port Sudan to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on the other side of the Red Sea.
Despite calls from the international community, no diplomatic solution is in sight between the two rivals in fatigues, who continue to rail against each other through the media.
“The UN is stepping up its efforts to help people seeking safety in neighboring countries”, assures its Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Twitter, who says he supports any African mediation.
According to the UN, 75,000 people are internally displaced and at least 20,000 have fled to Chad, 4,000 to South Sudan, 3,500 to Ethiopia and 3,000 to the Central African Republic. In total, up to 270,000 people could flee if the war continues.
Sudanese authorities say the fighting is affecting 12 of the 18 states that make up this country of 45 million people, one of the poorest in the world.
According to the UN, a hundred people have been killed since Monday in El-Geneina, capital of West Darfur, a region still marked by the bloody civil war of the 2000s.
“Inter-tribal gun violence” caused the destruction of the city’s main hospital, the health ministry claims.
The UN chief warned of a “terrible” situation in Darfur, where “society is collapsing” with “tribes now trying to arm themselves”.
As the humanitarian drama worsens, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announced that it had to “stop almost all of [its] activities” because of the violence.
At the head of the Janjaweed 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 killed around 300,000 people and displaced nearly 2.5 million, according to the UN. Since then, the Janjawid have evolved and 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 Omar el-Bashir.
But differences then appeared and, for lack of agreement on the integration of the FSR into the army, degenerated into open war.