The United States on Monday called for a ceasefire in Sudan as the country’s capital came under fire for a third day. Khartoum is the scene of deadly fighting between rival military factions that threaten to disrupt the country’s staggering shift from autocracy to civilian rule.
At least 97 civilians have been killed and 365 wounded since fighting in Sudan broke out on Saturday morning, according to a toll published by the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors, an activist group. The government has not released figures.
From early Monday, shelling and air strikes were heard in Khartoum for about two hours before heavy attacks subsided, but artillery fire continued.
The clashes, which have also spread to other parts of Sudan, are the first outbreak of violence in the capital in decades and pit the armed forces against the powerful paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Leaders from both sides occupy the top two positions in Sudan’s governing council.
A protracted power struggle raises the risk of Sudan falling into civil war four years after autocrat Omar al-Bashir was overthrown in an uprising, as well as undermining internationally backed efforts to start a civil transition that should have been signed earlier. this month.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said an immediate ceasefire was needed, saying that this view was shared by the international community.
“There is a deep shared concern about the fighting and violence that is taking place in Sudan — the threat it poses to civilians, it poses to the Sudanese nation and potentially poses even to the region,” Blinken said on the sidelines of a meeting. G7 foreign ministers in Japan.
He also called on Sudanese army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo to ensure the protection of civilians.
Burhan heads Sudan’s ruling council and Dagalo, known as Hemedti, is his deputy.
Social media users reported heavy gunfire and artillery in Khartoum and there were some reports of gunfire in the town of Omdurman, which is across the Nile River from Khartoum.
The outbreak of fighting over the weekend followed rising tensions over RSF’s integration into the Sudanese Armed Forces. Discord over the timetable has delayed the signing of an internationally backed agreement with political parties on the transition to democracy after the 2021 military coup.
The violence occurs during the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast from dawn to dusk.
The UN World Food Program said on Sunday it had temporarily suspended all operations in famine-stricken areas of Sudan after three Sudanese staff were killed during fighting in North Darfur and a WFP plane was hit during a shootout at Khartoum airport. .
Source: CNN Brasil
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