The situation remains outstanding Sudan where clashes continue despite calls for a ceasefire on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr which marks the end of Ramadan. Although the UN believed in promise of a ceasefire new explosions and fire shook Khartoum in the early hours of Friday (21/4)
“Last night many districts of Khartoum were bombed and are still being bombed while Clashes rage between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries“, the doctors’ union pointed out this morning.
On Thursday (20/4) diplomatic contacts intensified. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the army chief and Sudan’s de facto leader after the 2021 coup, announced that he had spoken to regional leaders — mainly South Sudan and Ethiopia — and international leaders, including UN chief Antonio Guterres and U.S. Foreign Secretary Anthony Blinken.
All of them called for an end to the fighting against the notorious DTY of General Mohamed Hamdan Dagallo, the country’s second in command after the coup, ahead of the three-day Eid al-Fitr.
DTY themselves announced earlier today that “agree to a 72-hour ceasefire“, from 6:00 (local time, 7:00 Greek time), in order to “open humanitarian corridors for the removal of citizens and to give them the opportunity to be reunited with their families”.
The DTY said they took action in “legitimate defense” to repel an attempted “coup”, as they described it, and added that they were committed to an “absolute ceasefire” from today.
So far more than 350 people have been killed in the clashes.
At the same time, General Burhan appeared for the first time since the start of hostilities, on April 15, on state television. He addressed the nation on the occasion of Eid, as he always did as head of the transitional authorities, without mentioning a ceasefire.
“Our country is bleeding”
“For Eid this year, our country is bleeding: destruction, desolation and the sound of bullets have won over joy,” he pointed out. “We hope that we will come out of this ordeal more united (…) with an army, a people (…) towards a political power” added al-Burhan, sitting at a desk, wearing a military uniform, between two Sudanese flags.
Khartoum’s five million residents woke up today for the seventh day to the sound of airstrikes, explosions and clashes.
“We wish the fighting would stop for Eid, but we know that won’t happen,” said Abtnala, a resident of the capital.
General al-Burhan assured in his telephone communication with a television network that “I will not have a political discussion” with his rival General Dagalo, also known as Hemedi. Either he will stop “desiring to control the country”, or he will “be crushed militarily”.
After talks with the president of the African Union and other international leaders, “we are all convinced that it is urgent to declare a ceasefire in Sudan,” Blinken said, calling on the opposing generals to try once more to negotiate a truce.
Desperate residents don’t even have water
The fighting is centered in Khartoum and Darfur. In the capital, where residents now live without running water and electricitymany families are trying to leave, passing through DTY and regular army checkpoints, while bodies lie on the side of the roads.
US military in Sudan
Some 10,000 to 20,000 people, mostly women and children, have crossed into neighboring Chad in the past week, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The two warring sides regularly declare victories and launch accusations against their opponents, claims that are impossible to independently confirm.
The air force, which targets bases and DTY positions scattered in populated areas, does not hesitate to sometimes drop bombs on hospitals as well, complain doctors.
“70% of hospitals in Khartoum and areas where fighting is raging are out of order”, according to their union and as reported by the Athens News Agency. Moreover, those that continue to operate no longer have medical equipment, while others have been taken over by militants, driving out doctors and patients.
Humanitarian organizations have been forced to suspend their activitiescritical in a country where more than one in three inhabitants suffer from hunger under normal conditions.
Three World Food Program (WFP) workers were killed in Darfur at the start of the conflict.
Amid widespread chaos, Egypt managed, with the mediation of the United Arab Emirates, to remove “177 of its soldiers” stationed at an airbase in northern Sudan. And 27 others, who had been captured by the paramilitaries, were handed over to the Red Cross and are at the embassy in Khartoum, according to the Egyptian military.
Yesterday Thursday the US announced that it had sent military personnel to the area in order to facilitate the removal of personnel from the US embassy.
Source: News Beast
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