Sudan crisis: Warring factions agree to 72-hour ceasefire, evacuations gather pace
Sudan’s battling generals have agreed to a three-day ceasefire after 10 days of urban warfare in capital Khartoum and elsewhere left more than 400 people dead and triggered a mass exodus of foreign nationals.
Even as foreign governments airlifted hundreds of their diplomats and other citizens to safety, the Sudanese are desperately seeking ways to escape the violence amid burgeoning fears that the rivalry between army chief Abdel-Fattah Burhan and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) leader Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo ‘Hemedti’ might spark an all-out civil war.
Amani el-Taweel, an Egyptian expert on Africa, warned of “horrific suffering” for Sudanese unable to leave. Speaking to the Associated Press, el-Taweel stated that once evacuations are complete, “warring parties will not heed any calls for a truce or a ceasefire.”
Here are the latest developments in the violence that has gripped Sudan:
After previous bids to pause the conflict failed to take hold, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Monday: “Following intense negotiation over the past 48 hours, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have agreed to implement a nationwide ceasefire starting at midnight on April 24, to last for 72 hours.”
The RSF confirmed in Khartoum that it had agreed to the ceasefire, starting at midnight, to facilitate humanitarian efforts. The SAF said on its Facebook page that it also agreed to the truce deal.
The ceasefire announcement came in the wake of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ warning that the violence in Sudan, which flanks the Red Sea, Horn of Africa and Sahel regions, “risks a catastrophic conflagration … that could engulf the whole region and beyond”.
Guterres urged the 15 members of the Security Council to use their clout to return Sudan to the path of democratic transition.
So far, more than 4,000 people have fled the country in foreign-organised evacuations that began on Saturday. US special forces swooped in with Chinook helicopters Sunday to rescue diplomats and their dependents, while Britain launched a similar rescue mission. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said more than 1,000 EU citizens had been taken out during a “long and intense weekend” involving airlift missions by France, Germany and others.
Groups of South Koreans, Palestinians, Kenyans, Saudis, Japanese and other nationalities made the 13-hour drive from Khartoum to Port Sudan to be picked up by their nations’ aircraft.
In the hours leading up to the newly struck truce, heavy gunfire and thundering explosions rocked the city of Khartoum in continued fighting between the army and rival paramilitary group RSF. Airstrikes hammered the Nile-side Kalakla district for an hour until the area was “razed to the ground,” Atiya Abdulla Atiya, secretary of the Doctors’ Syndicate, told the Associated Press.