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A FRESH CEASEFIRE took effect in Sudan today after intense fighting that saw deadly air strikes in Khartoum and an exodus of wounded over the border into Chad.
The army, commanded by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has since 15 April been battling the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), headed by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, after the two fell out in a power struggle.
Multiple truces have been agreed and broken during the conflict, including after the United States slapped sanctions on both generals following the collapse of a previous ceasefire attempt at the end of May.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and United States of America announce the agreement of representatives of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a ceasefire throughout Sudan for a period of 72 hours,” a Saudi foreign ministry statement said late yesterday.
The ceasefire was to take effect at 6am (4am GMT) today, the mediators said, adding the two sides had agreed to refrain from attacks and allow freedom of movement and the delivery of humanitarian aid.
One hour into the truce, witnesses in Khartoum said the situation was “calm”.
“We want a full ceasefire,” Sami Omar, who lives in Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman, told AFP.
“A truce is not sufficient for us to return to our lives. They may stop fighting, but the RSF will not leave the homes (they occupy) and passing through checkpoints is just as difficult.”
Both sides had pledged to respect the truce in separate statements on Saturday night.
The army said “despite our commitment to the ceasefire, we will respond decisively to any violations the rebels commit” during the ceasefire.
RSF vowed to “honour our commitment to a comprehensive cessation of hostilities… with the primary aim of facilitating the delivery of vital humanitarian assistance to civilians”.
Before the latest truce, witnesses said air strikes had intensified in the capital in the past few days.
Yesterday, warplanes struck residential districts of Khartoum, killing “17 civilians, including five children”, according to a citizens’ support committee. AFP was unable to independently confirm the figures.
Residents had earlier reported air strikes around the city’s southern Yarmouk district — home to a weapons manufacturing and arms depot complex where the RSF claimed “full control” in early June.
Since battles began, the death toll across the country has topped 2,000, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project said.
A record 25 million people — more than half Sudan’s population — need aid, according to the United Nations.
Hundreds of kilometres west of Khartoum, as many as 1,100 people have been killed in the West Darfur state capital of El Geneina, according to the US State Department.
Medics in Chad said Saturday they were overwhelmed by the hundreds of wounded fleeing Sudan’s Darfur region, which has become an increasing focus of global concern.
The dead have included West Darfur governor Khamis Abdullah Abakar, killed after he criticised the paramilitaries in a Wednesday television interview. The RSF denied responsibility.
“We are overwhelmed in the operating theatre. We urgently need more beds and more staff,” said Seybou Diarra, a physician and project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Adre, Chad.
More than 600 patients, most with gunshot wounds, arrived at the facility over a three-day period — more than half of them on Friday, it said.
Claire Nicolet, MSF’s head of emergency programmes, cited “reports of intensifying and large-scale attacks this week”.
According to the International Organization for Migration, at least 149,000 people have fled from Darfur into Chad.
They are among the roughly 2.2 million people uprooted nationwide by the fighting, which has forced more than 528,000 to seek refuge in neighbouring countries, the IOM said.
On Thursday, the US State Department attributed the atrocities in Darfur “primarily” to the RSF and said the violence and alleged rights violations were an “ominous reminder” of the region’s previous genocide.
A years-long war in Darfur began in 2003 with a rebel uprising that prompted then-strongman Omar al-Bashir to unleash the Janjaweed militia, whose actions led to international charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The RSF have their origins in the Janjaweed.
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It has always puzzled me how politicians cannot be fired for lying – how is it possible to roll back 100% on election promises? I think this behaviour negatively impact society – normalising lying across all parts of society and business
@Brian Maher: Fat Rabbit explained that very well on TV one night.
@Brian Maher: They can. If people don’t vote for them in the next election. If people keep voting the same people back in nothing changes
@Brian Maher: Then we wonder why people won’t vote , the politicians can promise anything now knowing that they can actually do the opposite of what they promised with no consequences to them. Democracy is a joke to these politicians.
Headline should read why haven’t they got rid of usc yet !!
@S lloyd: Remind me again what we allegedly get from paying the USC tax? It’s an effin joke.
@Suzanne Dorgan: Working folks get nothing. The welfare brigade get heavily subsidised housing, free in fact as they use their dole to pay for it, free medical care, electricity allowance, fuel allowance, phone allowance, Christmas bonus, the list is endless. That’s where your USC goes.
@R Farrell: You seem to forget that we are still paying off Unsecured Bondholders Loans, Bankers Debt, IMF loans, Government ineptitude (Broadband plan, The Childrens Hospital Fiasco, Irish Water, Nama, etc) the list goes on for the past 11 years to the tune of 64 Billion or more. But still, you blame those on Welfare. Here’s a hint….’blame the guys in suits’.
@S lloyd: the USC was a tax that every single person paid – but not the usual scroungers pay F all and get everything for nothing
@Niall: Just like the bankers so but you probably bow down to their greatness.
@Bobby Moore: and dont forget if you went to the bother of buying a house, theres a tax on that too. People should read up about switzerland and how their home tax went from a couple hundread a year like ours to now its based on the potential rental rate of your property.
@R Farrell: Unemployment rate is down to 4.4% is 108,200 persons.
.The ‘welfare brigade’ are mainly those on pensions,on illness, disability &caring incomes,child related payments,working age employment supports,working age income supports,etc total beneficiaries of Social Welfare benefits in Ireland was 3,323,690 persons!(Table A4 : Annual Statistical Report 2018 Social Welfare.’)
There are now 2.28m people in employment in Ireland.Last year on 1/8/18 Revenue published data on individualised gross income which showed 1.77m persons on incomes €30,000& under.So social and affordable housing stock needed! Working people live in social housing too + elderly+disabled,etc.
Welfare Expenditure comes from 54.6% of Exchequer funding plus 45.4% from Social Insurance Fund(financed by PRSI contributions from employers (73%), employees (21.6%)&self employed (5.3%)
The USC is a tax paid directly to Exchequer.
@Nuala Mc Namara: Facts don’t matter to the likes of him Nuala. He has a job to do for Leo. The job is to keep banging the look over there division drum.
@Dave Doyle: I’m a female nurse Dave. You’re the stereotype expat, bitter, disenfranchised that you couldn’t make it work back here. Stay where you are, we’ve enough washed out looking Steven Seagal guys here banging your drum of poor me.
@R Farrell: Private hospital I hope, would hate to think you would have to deal with people inferior to you.
@G Row: Public A&E. We spend roughly 80% of our time dealing with drug & alcohol related injuries, of this probably 90% have medical cards & are on welfare. We’re the one’s who are inferior to those ‘too good to work’ and expect everything to be given to them for free.
@R Farrell: Move to private you will feel much better about yourself.
@R Farrell: Very successful at work in Ireland. From tenement to social housing to owning my own home there. Two sons, one with a degree from Trinity in History, a masters in economics from the UNSW. The other son a fully qualified aircraft engineer (avionics) for a major airline. I have a lifestyle here you can only dream about. Own my home here, no mortgage, no loans. I’ve nothing to be bitter about. No poor me’s. I hate what FG have done to the people of Ireland, the division FG survive on. The likes of you, in your ignorance, continually on here danging Leo’s division drum.
@G Row: I was thinking the same. The hatred she spouts here constantly about the “welfare brigade” . To think she works in a profession that is supposed to help people no matter who they are is worrying. A nurse who looks down her nose at the less well off and judges them?
@R Farrell: I’ve never heard a nurse talking about her patients in such a disgraceful manner.Research data published May last year which examined ALL 29 Emergency Departments in Ireland found that alcohol was a factor in 5.9% of attendances during week (which contradicts your assertion!)although it did rise to 1/3of all attendances on Saturday night/Sunday morning.
You usually negatively comment on welfare (despite unemployment rate 4.4%& total beneficiaries of welfare in Ireland is 3,324,690 people!!)and homeless “wanting houses next to mammy” despite Government own data showing that 82.4% on social housing waiting lists have no specific accommodation requirements, majority of rest need accommodation to suit specific needs eg disability!.
You never though seem to comment on the failing Government policies re National emergencies in homelessness, housing and health!
@Nuala Mc Namara: Well said Nuala.
I know these things are different depending on how much you get paid but PRSI is about 5% of my wages and USC another 5, what are they going to do? Bump PRSI to 9.5% and then claim they are abolishing the USC? They have their hand snugly in our pockets with the USC, they won’t be taking it out any time soon
@Fenster: regardless of how much you get paid you only pay 4% employee prsi. There is no 5% rate of prsi. Also with the system of usc in place with different rate bands and increased rates for higher earnings, in order to be paying an average of 5% usc on your wages you would be earning a minimum of € 104,000 gross per year. More than double the average industrial wage. Just saying.
How can anyone expect any different. FG love soundbites, they lie, it’s what they do best. They will say and promise anything that sounds like what people want to hear. Then have a laugh at the people’s expense while ignoring all they said and promised.
That’s the FG way.
@Dave Doyle: Pretty sure they learned everything they know from FF. Labour much more blatant about it. Sick.
Votes mean nothing. Whether you vote for who you think is right or not.
Politicians, for the most part, lie to get elected, once elected, its gravity train all the way to pension time.
Politicians don’t undo taxes, VRT used to be the hot topic. USC isn’t going anywhere.
@vfagan: sounds about right – it is funny how it didn’t take too much time to introduce and roll out USC and arrange to efficiently collect hundreds of millions of euro in no time….have had years to make any adjustments….but get spun this horsesh*t that it takes time.
I like simple, the USC was brought in to repay the bank debt, so we should not have to merge it. Once that value has been collected via USC it should just be stopped. But now it’s just more tax, this is why it’s complex. Because they are taking it as income..
@David Kearney: Just another 51 years or so of the USC as Ireland’s on the books debt is north of €200 billion. Inflation over the coming years and selling what’s left of the countries silverware might knock a decade off!
Brian Lenihan really screwed us all over
Sadly, our politicians are nothing more than a bunch of incompetent amateurs making themselves millionaires in the dail and doing nothing for the country. This is why they can’t get rid of taxes like the USC, and they need more taxes (in the guise of carbon taxes) for brexit.
We’re paying a very heavy price for electing these grossly inconpetent politicians. More capable politicians wouldn’t cost the country as much. And then adding insult to injury, they’re paying themselves unjustifiable amounts of money, making themselves wealthy millionaires while they’re there.
With 2 billion hospital and 3 billion broadband, these horrendously poor politicians are proving very costly for the state. Even just replacing harris could save the country billions in hospital overruns and botched tests and whatever else we don’t hear about.
@Adrian:
Never fear. The obvious solution is to double a TD’s salary to “attract the right talent”. Simples.
@Kevin: its a massive pity and its proving disasterous for the country that the gombeen FFG voters who cannot see outside their own parish, they cannot comprehend the damage these guys are doing on a national level costing the country billions.
Pat rabbitte said it perfectly…….politicians lie to the electorate to gst get elected, and in the case of the FFG cartel, they can lie, lie and lie again, and the gullible masses will still vote them in, while the likes of Pascal the plank and the rest roll out the its complicated reasons for not merging prsi and the usc. And like good little seals ths FFG supporters will just stand there and clap…….you lot get what you voted for
Cronies….get them all out
I really suspect the real reason they did not proceed to amalgamate the two deductions from our income as a single deduction is that we would rightly be horrified by the rather large significant amount being taken, it would scream injustice from your payslip and shock the poor sod who thought he was earning a fair wage with the prospect of managing his own money only to find the government were leaving him the crumbs after their deductions, to add insult to injury,the pittance is then subjected to all their indirect taxes which are set to increase, and Paschal will smile like a cheshire cat as he delivers how we are being taken to the cleaners.
@Honeybee: Is it not the role of the opposition to highlight inadequacies of Government?
@Shakka1244: what opposition?
@Shakka1244: What opposition ? are they not all together as one. It is so discouraging that if a general election took place tomorrow, the alignment of the parties would still be the same. It is awful to have a hundred years of tweedledee and tweedledum in government but to think we can have no hope of change is so much worse,a hundred years of lies and what makes it even worse is knowing as we were lied to that they didn’t think we were worth the truth .
USC…. literally robbing us. Big thanks to FF for crashing the country and a big shout out to FG for destroying what was left.
For “it’s complex” read “we couldn’t be assed”! Took three weeks to prepare CAB legislation , so why not do it?
And on the other hand, they are not awarding the NBP (Broadband Plan) to Eir as they are SO concerned that people will have to pay an few pound (€70) to connect their house should they go with Eir’s last minute proposal. Fleesing our pockets in one way, and wasting 2 billion to make sure people save €70. Somone call an election!
@Gerard O’Sullivan: The Dinny deal has been done. FFG won’t dare upset their boss.
People keep allow this this type of additional taxation to happen, just look at your insurance , still paying for PMPA, Quinn, uninsured drivers, failed company’s, then look at your power bill public obligation charge, and the list goes on, ever time there is a financial issue they simply dump onto the tax payer, then they will increase there own wages to cover the cost. The people need to take a stand on type of behavior by Governments
Give me back my USC ye shower of lying gowls
Doherty is great…but we cannot run the country on air….or ride to work on his beautiful unicorns….the country costs money to run and somebody had to pay tax….please God some day SF can get into government and run the country properly….like they used to in NI before the money started to dry up and real adult supervision was require….
@Paul: his point is fg said they’d abolish usc and they havent, he’s not saying it should be abolished
@Paul: Pearse Doherty asked Minister questions and found out no concrete plan to amalgamate USC&PRSI.USC brings in €3.9B a year.
Pearse said “Imagine if we had a €3.9B hole in Budget facing Brexit&all the other uncertainties we are familiar with from the Fiscal Council &other Reports.”.So you’re completely wrong!
Next time read the article properly!
@Paul: As he said, another clapping seal.
We have been properly screwed by FFG. We should keep voting them in and test if a leopard can really change it’s spots. While we are testing this theorem, waste, cronyism and lies will be delivered until we, the stupid electorate, realise that no, a leopard does not change it’s spots.
You’re just a number for money-taking exercises. You can not get ahead in this country. It’s impossible.
I have absolutely no problem paying USC or PRSI and would gladly pay more if it was used to find our health system , education system , housing cisis etc. Instead our taxes pay off the debts of gambling banks and the crazy salaries and pensions of incompetent politicians
Laughable shower of Gangster in that Leinster house ! Merge the two .WTF USC was brought in as a austerity measure with promises that it would be removed when we are rolling again . Sure why would they not keep doing what there doing when people still actually vote these liars in . No different than the guy robbing the bank just far more sneakier .
“It is too complex” basically he just said you are too stupid to understand and can’t be bothered to explain it to you… or he actually doesn’t know how to do it.
This is a finna fail tax. I’ll never vote for FF ever. It also amazes me how now that we are paying USC that it now pays for ‘things’ that were already in place and stopping it means we cant have those ‘things’ . Horse shit
@fergalmoore: It’s to assist with the €6 Billion interest repayments for the bailout loan that nobody ever talks about. The loan our grandchildren will still be paying.
Its amazing that the Irish taxpayer hasn’t revolted about having to pay for the excesses
of Celtic Tiger builders & their aiding ab=nd abetting Banksters & politicians.
Solution:
-raise corporate tax to 17.5%
-abolish income splitting by the middle class professionals
-abolish the USC
-reduce Vat to 20%
-abolish TV licences
-reduce car tax to E20/year for cars of lss that 120G/Klm CO2.
-remove property tax from the family house valued less that E500K
FG in lying shocker !!!
USC should have been scrapped long ago.Its suchba pity we as a nation let all these things happen without putting up any sorta fight
Varadkar just lies lies and lies he’s worst than Trump
USC another tax money to put into there own pockets the government is nothing but conmen and robbing gits
It is not complex for us to vote for an alternative government, one which will roll back the lifetime cuts to our privately funded pensions, the USC, & reform the property tax to base it on living space rather than on local valuation. The most inequitable government in the states history will be binned to restore fairness to those who got up early for decades past, & paid taxes to build the social housing in the fifties- nineties.
It wasn’t complex for them to put pay & pension restoration in train for public servants, including themselves, nor to raid our pension funds in the first place.
It will rain P45s in the next general election, fool us twice rule will apply.
Well as long as the id&%t Irish keep them in power, the longer they will be ridden. It’s basic math’s.
Dismiss this shower and let somebody in who can do the job honestly without lies and spin doctors covering up their incompetence. It’s sick
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