AIRSTRIKES SHOOK SUDAN’S capital again today while the latest truce talks have yielded no progress, with a Saudi diplomat saying both sides consider themselves “capable of winning the battle”.
So far the battles across the country have killed hundreds, wounded thousands and left millions barricaded inside their homes amid dire shortages of water, food and basic supplies.
Representatives from both sides of the conflict flew to Saudi Arabia for talks on establishing a humanitarian truce in an effort also backed by the United States, but to no avail so far.
The talks had yielded “no major progress”, a Saudi diplomat told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“A permanent ceasefire isn’t on the table… Every side believes it is capable of winning the battle,” the diplomat added.
In Khartoum, a city of five million, terrified residents reported more combat, now in its fourth week, as they hid out in their homes amid power outages and sweltering heat.
A southern Khartoum resident told AFP the family could hear “the sound of airstrikes which appeared to come from near a market in central Khartoum”.
Today, humanitarian charity Concern Worldwide resumed their operations in the country with their 140 staff, who had been confined to their homes since last month.
In a statement today Concern said their teams on the ground are “also assessing the security situation in West Darfur” and will resume operations “as soon as the security situation improves”.
The charity’s Horn of Africa Regional Director, Amina Abdulla, said “Our teams are doing assessments of the needs in South and West Kordofan states and attending coordination meetings as part of the planning to recommence programmes which were suspended due to fighting.”
The director said that the charity’s priorities will be “health, food security and nutrition, water and sanitation, shelter materials and other essential household items”.
Last month, Concern’s country director for Sudan pleaded for peace in the region.
Fighting in Sudan broke out April between the forces of army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and his deputy-turned-rival, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who heads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Saudi Arabia is pushing for “a timetable for expanded negotiations to reach a permanent cessation of hostilities”, its foreign ministry said.
The talks, which are being held in Jeddah, are set to continue “in the following days” and aim to reach “an effective short-term halt” to the fighting to facilitate aid delivery and to restore basic services, it added.
A major breakthrough would be to secure humanitarian corridors to allow aid through Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast to Khartoum and to the strife-torn Darfur region bordering Chad.
Since mid-April, multiple truce deals have been declared and quickly violated in the poverty-stricken country with a history of instability.
Mediation efforts have multiplied.
The African Union, which holds little leverage after suspending Sudan following a coup in 2021, and East African regional bloc IGAD are pushing for discussions mediated by South Sudan.
The Arab League called for an end to hostilities on Sunday and the preservation of Sudan’s “sovereignty”, but without specifying details.
Heavyweights in the pan-Arab bloc are divided on Sudan, with Egypt supporting Burhan and the United Arab Emirates seen to be backing the RSF, according to experts.
The fighting has sparked a mass exodus of foreigners and of Sudanese, in both air and sea evacuations and arduous overland journeys to Egypt, Chad, South Sudan and other neighbouring countries.
So far, nearly 250 Irish citizens have been evacuated from the country, Táinaiste and Minister for Defence Micheál Martin confirmed last week.
“It’s very dangerous everywhere,” said Rawaa Hamad, who escaped from Port Sudan on an evacuation flight to Qatar on Monday carrying 71 people.
Rawaa said there is “no safety now, unfortunately” in Sudan, and its people are enduring “a lack of everything” including water, fuel, medicine and “even hospital and doctors”.
The battles have killed more than 750 people and injured over 5,000, according to a count by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.
The United Nations has warned of a widening humanitarian crisis after fighting has already displaced 335,000 people and created 117,000 refugees.
More than 60,000 Sudanese have fled north into Egypt, 30,000 west to Chad, and over 27,000 to South Sudan, according to the UN.
The UN top humanitarian official, Martin Griffiths, has travelled to the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah, the site of what Washington and Riyadh have labelled “pre-negotiation talks”.
A UN official said on Monday that Griffiths had “asked to join the negotiations” between the warring sides, but that his request had not been approved so far.
With additional reporting by Muiris O’Cearbhaill
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