LAST UPDATE | 28 Apr 2023

FIGHTING HAS RAGED in Sudan today, despite rival forces agreeing to extend a truce aimed to stem nearly two weeks of warfare that has killed hundreds and caused widespread destruction.

In the capital Khartoum, where foreign nations are scrambling to organise mass evacuations of their citizens, Turkey’s defence ministry said a military transport aircraft came under fire.

Witnesses reported mass looting as gunmen fired rockets in bitter urban battles in the western Darfur region.

There have been multiple truce efforts since fighting broke out on 15 April between Sudan’s army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commanded by his former deputy and fellow coup leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. All have failed.

Yesterday, the two sides agreed to extend a repeatedly broken ceasefire for three more days.

The United States, Saudi Arabia as well as the African Union, the United Nations and others welcomed the rival generals’ “readiness to engage in dialogue” in a bid to create a “more durable cessation of hostilities and ensuring unimpeded humanitarian access”.

Since a power struggle between Burhan and Daglo erupted into violence, fighter jets have pounded RSF positions with air strikes in densely packed districts of Khartoum, as fighters on the ground exchanged volleys of artillery and heavy machine gun fire.

In some parts of the city of some five million people, trenches have been dug as gunmen battle each other street by street.

At least 512 people have been killed and 4,193 wounded in the fighting, according to health ministry figures, although the real death toll is likely much higher.

‘Foolish war’

Fighting has also spread across Sudan, especially in Darfur, where witnesses reported intense conflict.

The Darfur Bar Association, a civil society group, said fighters were “launching rockets at houses” in El Geneina, state capital of West Darfur, as well reporting firing from “rifles, machine guns and anti-aircraft weapons”.

Fighting has spread “nearly all over the city” and fighters have “looted camps for the displaced and the university hospital” as well as setting fire to “markets, public buildings, aid warehouses and banks”, the Bar Association added.

It urged Burhan and Daglo to “immediately stop this foolish war that is being waged on the backs of civilians across Sudan”.

The doctors’ union said “dozens” have been killed or wounded in El Geneina, where the UN has said it has reports of the “distribution of weapons among local communities”.

In El Fasher, state capital of North Darfur, medics are struggling to cope with the influx of wounded people.

“The situation is very, very difficult here,” said Mohamed Gibreel, project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in El Fasher, adding that the hospital there had received 410 wounded patients.

“There is no water, there is also no electricity,” Gibreel said in a video posted by MSF today, which showed patients on the corridor of the crowded hospital. ”It has impacted all life-saving services.”

Evacuations

Tánaiste Micheál Martin said today that 163 Irish citizens and their families have been evacuated from Sudan and thanked international partners for their help with the evacuation.

Martin said yesterday that he was “wary of giving precise figures”, he added that “close to 100 people could still be in Sudan”.

The Department of Foreign Affairs says it is maintaining contact with the Embassy in Nairobi and advising Irish citizens still in Sudan.

“Due to continued uncertainty about the duration of the current ceasefire, and the generally volatile situation in Sudan”, a spokesperson for the Department said, “we advise citizens, if they judge it safe to do so, to give serious consideration to evacuation options as they become available”.

“Evacuation operations will only continue for as long as the security situation in Sudan allows.”

An update.

163 Irish citizens and their dependents have now been evacuated from #Sudan.

Thank you to our international partners, and everyone involved in the evacuation.

I urge all sides to maintain the ceasefire. Concerned about the widening humanitarian crisis unfolding.

— Micheál Martin (@MichealMartinTD) April 28, 2023

Concern Worldwide have stated that ten non-Sudanese staff were evacuated from Sudan today, including one Irish citizen.

The group left by boat from Port Sudan this afternoon and will be brought to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the charity said.

Regional security advisor for GOAL East Africa, Paul Westbury, told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that the charity’s staff were in danger but still trying to provide aid.

“We’ve had contact with a team this morning on the ground. Despite this new ceasefire agreement, there is fighting going on in around Khartoum north and Omdurman.”

“Omdurman is a city to the side of Khartoum which is mostly residential, so where most of our staff live.”

“It is dire, it is quite dangerous for them. But in general, they’re trying to help each other out as best they can in the circumstances,” he said.

“Some of them have moved awy from the main fighting area, others are still trapped. It’s difficult to move around as there’s military on the streets, overhead bombing, so they know they have to stay where they are.”

He added that GOAL was hoping to restart its aid programs in a safe and secure manner to help people affected by the conflict.

Mass exodus

The World Food Programme has said the violence could plunge millions more into hunger in a country where 15 million people – one-third of the population – need aid to stave off famine.

At least five aid workers have been killed and swathes of aid operations suspended — putting the lives of 50,000 acutely malnourished children “at real risk”, the UN has warned.

Darfur is still reeling from the devastating war that raged in the 2000s when then hardline president Omar al-Bashir crushed ethnic-minority rebels by creating the Janjaweed militia to carry out atrocities, a force that later formed the basis of Daglo’s RSF.

That conflict left at least 300,000 people killed and close to 2.5 million displaced, according to UN figures, and saw Bashir charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide by the International Criminal Court.

Burhan and Daglo – commonly known as Hemeti – seized power in a 2021 coup that derailed Sudan’s transition to democracy, established after Bashir was ousted following mass protests in 2019.

But the two generals later fell out, most recently over the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army.

Residents of Khartoum have meanwhile been shuttered at home, running dangerously low on food, cash and fuel needed to get out, with only intermittent power and internet.

Tens of thousands have already fled to neighbouring countries including Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan.

The UN warns the fighting could result in up to 270,000 people fleeing.

With reporting by Jamie McCarron

 – © AFP 2023