Sat 29 Apr 2023:
The sounds of air strikes, anti-aircraft weaponry, and artillery could be heard in Khartoum and dark smoke rose over parts of the city as fighting in Sudan entered a third week.
Despite the announcement of a 72-hour ceasefire extension, fighting between the army and its rival paramilitary force was also ongoing in the nearby cities of Bahri and Ombdurman.
Hundreds have been killed and tens of thousands have fled for their lives in a power struggle between generals Abdel Fattah al-Burhan of the Sudanese Armed Forces and Mohamed “Hemedti” Hamdan Dagalo of the Rapid Support Forces erupted into violence on April 15.
The army has deployed fighter jets and drones to strike Rapid Support Forces (RSF) positions in areas across the capital. Many residents are pinned down by urban warfare with scant water, food, fuel, and power.
RSF accused the army of violating the latest ceasefire with air strikes on its bases in Omdurman, Khartoum’s sister city at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile rivers, and Mount Awliya.
The army blamed RSF for truce violations.
Sudan army chief: ‘No negotiations with militia groups’
Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan reports the two warring sides do not appear close to meeting each other despite efforts by the international community to get them to adhere to a ceasefire and hold talks to end two weeks of heavy fighting.
“The Sudanese army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, spoke to a US public broadcaster on Friday and said there will be no negotiations with the militia groups, while referring to the RSF,” Morgan reported from Khartoum.
Rapid Support Forces chief General Mohamed “Hemedti” Hamdan Dagalo has said he is willing to negotiate once a ceasefire takes hold and the army stops attacks.
The army agreed to send an envoy to South Sudan’s capital Juba for talks with the RSF, but it was a tentative agreement and “it doesn’t look like it will happen”, Morgan said.
Aid agencies running out of food for refugees
Two weeks since refugees began arriving in Chad and South Sudan, aid agencies say they are running out of food for them.
The UN has said it is expecting up to 270,000 people to leave Sudan for its neighbouring countries.
Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris says there has been a marked presence of local and international aid agencies since the arrival of refugees from Sudan, but hundreds of refugees remain without access to food and non-food aid from these agencies.
“Most of the refugees are living out in the open in the Koufron refugee camp in Chad, where not a single tent can be found” Idris said.
“Some people have gathered twigs and straws to form structures and covered them robes in order to provide some form of shade.”
As more refugees continue to enter the eastern part of Chad, the state of camps remains “desperate”, he said.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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