Sudan’s capital was on Monday again riddled with Airstrikes even as the latest truce talks in Jeddah failed to record any meaningful progress, with a Saudi diplomat revealing that both sides currently consider themselves ‘capable of winning the battle’.
Africa Today News, New York recalls that Sudan was thrown into a deadly crisis a fortnight ago when fighting broke out on April 15 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).
The battles have since killed hundreds, wounded thousands and left millions barricaded inside their homes amid dire shortages of water, food and basic supplies.
The feuding generals have sent representatives 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.
By Monday, the talks had yielded ‘no major progress”, a Saudi diplomat told reporters, refusing to disclose his identity.
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“A permanent ceasefire isn’t on the table… Every side believes it is capable of winning the battle,” the diplomat added.
Africa Today News, New York reports that in Khartoum which is a city of no fewer than 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 reporters that the family could hear ‘the sound of airstrikes which appeared to come from near a market in central Khartoum”.
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.
“It’s very dangerous everywhere,” said Rawaa Hamad, who escaped from Port Sudan on an evacuation flight to Qatar on Monday carrying 71 people.
In Sudan, she said, there is “no safety now, unfortunately”, with its people enduring “a lack of everything — a lack of water, lack of fuel, lack of medicine, lack of even hospitals 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.