Second day of ceasefire in Sudan… Light clashes and hopes of ending the nightmare of war
The sound of light clashes between the two sides in Sudan’s conflict breaks the second day of a week-long truce, designed to allow aid deliveries and pave the way for a longer truce.
The ceasefire agreement, monitored by Saudi Arabia, the United States as well as the two parties to the conflict – the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – came after five weeks of heavy fighting in Khartoum and spillover of violence to other parts of the country, such as Sudan’s western Darfur region.
Residents in Omdurman, one of three towns that make up Khartoum state together, said there had been exchanges of fire late on Tuesday in several areas.
They said they heard heavy artillery fire near the Wadi Seedna military base on the outskirts of the capital.
“In North Omdurman last night we heard violent clashes, but the situation after the truce is better every new day we have hope that the nightmare of war may end… We hated war,” university professor Hassan Awad, 48, told Reuters by phone.
A ceasefire that went into effect on Monday night brought a relative lull in fighting in Khartoum on Tuesday, but there were few signs of a rapid increase in humanitarian relief, with aid groups saying that many of the supplies and aid workers arriving in Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast were waiting for security clearances and guarantees.
Fighting broke out between the Sudanese army and the RSF, while internationally backed plans for a transition to democratic elections were being finalized.
Sudan was already facing severe humanitarian pressures before the conflict broke out on 15 April, which forced more than a million people to flee their homes and threatened to destabilize the region.
More than 300,000 have so far fled Sudan to neighboring countries, many crossing into Chad and Egypt in the past few days, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said on Wednesday.
“Donor contributions to the refugee response plan are still scarce. We urgently need more resources to support countries hosting refugees.”
“According to the UN, the number of people in need inside Sudan has jumped to 25 million, more than half of the country’s population.”
Calls for an end to violence
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on Wednesday described what is happening in Sudan as “tragic” and called directly on both sides in the fighting to stop the violence and protect civilians.
“Turk said his office had received reports of the use of fighter jets and clashes in the capital, Khartoum, overnight despite the ceasefire.”
“Many civilians are effectively trapped in areas of relentless fighting,” Turk told reporters in Geneva.
General (Abdul Fattah al-Burhan), General (Mohammed Hamdan) Daglo, you must give clear and unambiguous instructions to all those who order you that there will be zero tolerance for violence.. Civilian lives must be protected and you must immediately stop this senseless violence.
His Office had documented at least 25 cases of sexual violence so far, and the real number was likely to be much higher.
