The ceasefire agreed for a week in Sudan was broken again after a short time. According to reports, there was heavy shelling in the capital Khartoum. South Sudan is trying to mediate.
The agreed ceasefire in Sudan has been broken again. Airstrikes and heavy shelling erupted near the presidential palace in the Sudanese capital Khartoum in the morning, according to the Arabic television channel Al-Jazeera. Bomb blasts and gunfire were also heard in the neighboring towns of Bahri and Omdurman.
The leaders of the Sudanese army and their rival paramilitaries had actually agreed on Wednesday to a seven-day ceasefire from May 4th to 11th. Since the start of the bloody conflict three weeks ago, ceasefires of up to 72 hours have been negotiated, but repeatedly broken. A real ceasefire was not actually observed by either side.
Enemy Generals
In the country on the Horn of Africa, de facto President Abdel Fattah al-Burhan is using the armed forces to wage a power struggle against his deputy, Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, who heads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The two generals had agreed on Wednesday to appoint representatives for negotiations that were to take place in the South Sudanese capital Juba. The President of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, has been trying to mediate between the two parties to the conflict as a representative of the Northeast African regional association IGAD.
Al-Burhan and Daglo had once taken over leadership in Sudan through joint military coups. However, questions about the distribution of power led to a rift between the two camps, which culminated in open fighting on April 15 and plunged the country with its approximately 46 million inhabitants into a crisis.
hundreds of thousands on the run
According to the United Nations (UN), the heavy fighting in Sudan has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee since mid-April. More than 330,000 people are fleeing within the country. According to estimates by the UNHCR refugee agency, more than 100,000 people have sought refuge in countries neighboring Sudan since the fighting began. Many would arrive in Chad, South Sudan and Egypt.
At the end of last week, the Ministry of Health reported around 530 dead and a good 4,600 injured in the fighting. Because of the confusing situation in Sudan, however, experts assume that the actual numbers are likely to be significantly higher.