A claimed 24-hour ceasfire agreed by Sudan’s worrying genernals has broken down – with aid workers and officials warning some areas are just days away from running out of food and water.
Fighting was still underway in Sudan’s capital hours after the ceasefire was supposed to take effect. The military and a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) each accused the other of violating the truce, which was to take effect Tuesday at 6pm local time. Residents said gunfire and explosions continued to echo across the capital, Khartoum, and that while some people had ventured out to buy food, most were sheltering in place. The US Embassy also said the fighting was “ongoing” and advised Americans to stay indoors.
Deadly clashes between the Sudanese armed forces and rival paramilitary group, RSF, have raged since Saturday devastating Khartoum and nearby cities as well as the western conflict-ravaged province of Darfur, leaving many trapped. Artillery volleys, airstrikes, heavy machine gunfire and street fighting have already killed at least 185 people in some of the fiercest clashes in decades. The violence has triggered a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations.
Residents of Khartoum told The Independent they fear the death toll is even higher as civilians are unable to collect the bodies which litter the streets, ambulances cannot attend to the wounded, hospitals have been shelled and families are unable to secure supplies.
A US diplomatic convoy carrying foreign diplomats came under fire and reports circulated that gunmen in downtown Khartoum were looting buildings and raping women. Fighters have also attacked aid workers and diplomats, including an EU ambassador who was assaulted in his home.
Fearing an unprecedented humanitarian collapse, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said he had telephoned both RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, and army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. In the calls, he said he appealed for a 24-hour ceasefire “to allow the Sudanese to be safely reunited with families” and to provide them with relief.
After the call on Tuesday, Hemedti said the RSF approved the ceasefire to ensure the safe passage of civilians and the evacuation of the wounded.
However, residents of Khartoum and other cities said that previous attempts at ceasefires had not held and civilians are afraid to move as the pause folded.
In Darfur, which has already been gripped by a 20-year conflict that killed as many as 300,000 people and displaced 2.7 million, humanitarian aid workers told The Independent they themselves were unable to move and were fast running out of food and water. They said that left them powerless to help the tens of thousands of internally displaced people in camps that rely completely on their life-saving aid.
“Where I live with my five colleagues we have run out of water. There has been no electricity for 72 hours to pump the water supply,” said Thomas Okedi, area manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council humanitarian organisation in al-Fashir, North Darfur.
He said the fighting in the streets also prevented people from being able to evacuate: the United Nations reported at least 65 people have been killed in the Darfur region since Saturday.
“Food supplies for the entire city cannot last for more than three days as al-Fashir relies entirely on supplies from outside areas which are right now contested. Medical services are overstretched.”
Mr Okedi added that virtually all aid agencies and charities had had to halt their programmes because of the violence. Three World Food Programme staffers have been shot dead during the fighting while attempting to evacuate as has a staff member for Relief International. An NRC employee has also been wounded by gunfire in a separate incident.
“It is a terrifying situation of hopelessness, knowing that there are more than 900,000 people who are internally displaced in north Darfur but we cannot reach them. And now many more thousands have been displaced in the last few days,” Mr Okedi added.
Fighting erupted at the weekend as a bitter rivalry between the country’s two most powerful generals – Hemedti and Burhan – reached breaking point.
Burhan and Hemedti, who currently hold the two top positions in the country’s ruling Sovereign Council, joined forces in October 2021 to instigate a military coup, just two years after the toppling of long-term autocrat Omar Bashir by nationwide protests.
However, tensions had boiled over an internationally-backed political agreement to transition to civilian rule, which was supposed to be signed last month and would have seen the RSF’s integration into the regular military.
The conflict has paralysed the country. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it was nearly impossible to provide humanitarian services around the capital. It warned that Sudan’s health system was at risk of breakdown.
