Battles continue in Khartoum for the twentieth day between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, while the US President threatened to impose new sanctions on those responsible if the war did not stop.
The sounds of fierce battles resounded in central Khartoum today, Thursday, with the Sudanese army trying to remove the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces from the areas surrounding the presidential palace and the army headquarters, in light of the difficulty of holding the ceasefire.
US President Joe Biden announced Thursday that the battles "must end" threatening new sanctions on those responsible for the bloodshed.
"The ongoing violence in Sudan is a tragedy and a betrayal of the clear demands of the Sudanese people for a civilian government and a transition to democracy," he said in a statement, adding, "It must end."
Heavy shelling was heard in the cities of Omdurman and Bahri, adjacent to Khartoum. The two sides agreed to extend the truce for seven days, but it was violated.
The United Nations pressed both sides in the conflict on Wednesday to secure safe passage for humanitarian aid after six trucks carrying humanitarian supplies were looted and air strikes in Khartoum undermined the truce again.
Martin Griffiths, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said he hoped to hold a direct meeting with both sides of the conflict within two or three days, to obtain guarantees from them that aid convoys could deliver humanitarian supplies.
"You will not see a victor."
The leader of the armed "Sudanese rebel movement", Abdel Wahed Mohamed Nour, who was one of the leaders of the bloody fighting in the Darfur region for decades, says that the current war in Sudan "will not see a victor."
"The Sudanese people do not want either of them (Abdul Fattah al-Burhan and Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo), but rather a civilian government," al-Nur, who is currently residing in southern Sudan, said in an interview with Agence France-Presse.
Nour, 55, who lived for years in the past in Paris, described what is happening in Sudan now as a "catastrophe."
humanitarian catastrophe
The United Nations warns that the fighting between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, which broke out on April 15, threatens to lead to a humanitarian catastrophe that could spread to other countries. Sudan said on Tuesday the conflict had killed 550 and injured 4,926.
The United Nations says about 100,000 people have fled Sudan to neighboring countries with little food or water.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at a press conference in Mozambique that he had discussed the situation in Sudan with African leaders and would work to contribute to peace.
The army said it had killed members of the Rapid Support Forces and destroyed "a number of rebel fighting vehicles" after clashes between them in the military zone in Bahri.
Before their rift broke out, the army and the Rapid Support Forces joined forces in a coup two years ago and shared power as part of an internationally backed transition aimed at holding free elections and establishing a civilian government.
The RSF accused the army of violating the ceasefire and attacking the forces since dawn. It said that the army attacked residential neighborhoods of the Rapid Support Forces with artillery and aircraft in "Maslak Coward".
The Sudanese Foreign Ministry calls for the Rapid Support Forces to be classified as a "terrorist organization"
After all the truce agreements failed, the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on the international community to designate the RSF a "terrorist organization", due to the crimes it committed against civilians and diplomatic missions.
On Thursday, the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces of committing “continuous violations and crimes against citizens and diplomatic missions,” and called on both the international community and the East African Intergovernmental Organization for Development (IGAD) to designate it a “terrorist organization.”
Despite successive truces with regional and international mediation, clashes have continued since mid-April in a number of Sudanese states between the army, led by the head of the Transitional Sovereignty Council, Major General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the "quick support" forces led by the deputy head of the council, Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo (Hamidti).
The Foreign Ministry said, in a statement, that it "condemns this terrorist behavior, and calls on the international community and IGAD to condemn the militia, which is rebelling against the ongoing violations and crimes against the state, citizens, and diplomatic missions in the country, to classify it as a terrorist organization, and to implement legal and judicial accountability measures."
In 2013, the Rapid Support Forces were established to support government forces in their fight against armed rebel movements in the Darfur region (west), and then assumed tasks, including combating illegal immigration across borders and preserving the country's security.
With the mediation of IGAD, the two parties agreed to nominate their representatives to engage in peace negotiations and start a new humanitarian truce Thursday that will last for seven days, but clashes renewed in the center of the capital, Khartoum, where the army headquarters and the presidential palace are located, and the two fighting parties exchanged accusations of responsibility.
And the Foreign Ministry continued: "The rebel forces continue their irresponsible behavior by violating the armistice, as they have done since announcing their rebellion against the state, which confirms their disregard for international law and their lack of respect for their commitments to the international and regional community."
And she added: "Despite the commitment of the armed forces to the truce for humanitarian reasons and the provision of favorable conditions for the evacuation of foreign nationals, the rebel Rapid Support militia launched a surprise attack on Thursday morning on sites, including the Bahri military area (north of Khartoum), where the armed forces confronted them and inflicted heavy losses in lives and equipment." .
It also accused the "Rapid Support" of attacking "the headquarters of diplomatic missions and international organizations with theft and looting, taking hospitals and health centers as military headquarters, expelling citizens from their homes, looting their property, and taking them as human shields."
On the other hand, the Rapid Support Forces condemned, in a statement, what it called "the irresponsible actions of the leaders of the coup forces (the army) and the remnants of the defunct regime (supporters of the former regime headed by Omar al-Bashir)", by violating the declared humanitarian truce and attacking our forces since Thursday dawn in a number of locations. its positioning.”
It added that the "rapid support" forces and residential neighborhoods in Khartoum are subjected to indiscriminate bombardment with artillery and aircraft, in "a cowardly behavior that constitutes a blatant violation of international norms, laws, and international and humanitarian law," according to the statement.
The fighting claimed the lives of 550 people, including 448 civilians, and wounded 4,926, in addition to the flight of tens of thousands of people from the areas of clashes, according to the United Nations, the Sudanese authorities, and the Sudan Doctors Committee (non-governmental).
The two sides exchange accusations of being responsible for starting the fighting, and between Al-Burhan and Hamidti there are differences, the most prominent of which is a proposal to integrate the "rapid support" forces into the army, which is one of the pillars of an agreement to return power to civilians.
Tags:
africaaustralia