After the ceasefire ended, clashes resume in Khartoum once again, threatening hopes for calm
Witnesses said: Violent clashes erupted between rival military factions in several parts of the Sudanese capital Wednesday evening as the 72-hour ceasefire ended and several international reports revealed multiple violations of the truce.
According to Reuters, shortly before the hudna ended, news broke of fighting in the three cities that make up the broader capital around the confluence of the Nile: Khartoum, Bahri and Omdurman.
Ethnic cleansing
Sudan’s army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been fighting each other for more than two months, wreaking havoc on the capital, sparking widespread violence in the western region of Darfur and causing more than 2.5 million people to flee their homes.
Local and foreign observers described the attacks in the western town of El Geneina as akin to ethnic cleansing, with witnesses saying that military aircraft carried out airstrikes in the city, and witnesses also reported artillery shelling and heavy clashes in Omdurman and ground clashes in southern Khartoum.
According to residents, clashes have also been reported near the army headquarters in the city of Delenj in South Kordofan, where the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) led by Abdul Aziz al-Hilu is gathering. The SPLM-N is a major rebel force that is not clearly aligned with either faction.
In Nyala, one of Sudan’s largest cities and the capital of South Darfur, the army and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) clashed in the city center and northern areas for a second day after a period of calm, a local activist said, amid power cuts.
The international agency confirmed that the ceasefire is the latest in several truce agreements mediated by Saudi Arabia and the United States in talks in Jeddah, but the rapid return of fighting after each truce reflects how difficult it is to resolve the crisis. Also, with each truce, there are widespread reports of violations.
Late on Tuesday night, both factions blamed each other for a major fire at the intelligence headquarters, located in a defense complex in central Khartoum, and Saudi Arabia and the United States said that if the warring factions failed to respect the ceasefire they would consider postponing the Jeddah talks.
