A new fragile truce, more than a month after the start of hostilities. A week-long ceasefire was agreed on Saturday (May 20) between belligerents in Sudan, where airstrikes earlier rocked the capital, Khartoum, still in the throes of heavy fighting.
Representatives of the Sudanese army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, and paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo (known as “Hemedti”), agreed to a ceasefire in a week from Monday, the United States and Saudi Arabia said in a joint statement.
This ceasefire “will enter into force at 9:45 p.m. Khartoum time on May 22” and will last “seven days”, says the document. The announcement of this new truce comes after several ceasefires concluded since the start of the fighting on April 15 quickly shattered. Riyadh and Washington acknowledged this, but said that “Unlike previous ceasefires, the agreement reached in Jeddah was signed by the parties and will be backed by a ceasefire monitoring mechanism backed by the United States, Saudi Arabia and (the International community”.
More than a thousand dead
Earlier in the day, residents of the capital told AFP of “air strikes” more and more violent, even making “shake the walls of the houses”. For more than a month, the army and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (FSR) have been fighting for control of places of power. The fight between the two men plunged Sudan into chaos. Testimonies of occupation of housing, looting and other abuses are increasing, and diplomatic representations have not been spared. On Saturday, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry accused the “FSR militias” of attacking, vandalizing and looting the Qatari Embassy in Khartoum.
The fighting left more than a thousand dead and more than a million displaced and refugees. Food is becoming increasingly scarce and the Sudanese agro-food industry is on its knees. More than one in two Sudanese needs humanitarian aid, and the UN has announced that it will release $22 million from an emergency fund to help Sudanese who have fled to neighboring countries.