Factions agree to 72-hour ceasefire in war-torn Sudan

The warring factions in Sudan have agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire starting on Tuesday even as tens of thousands of people including the locals and foreign civilians continued to flee the country. The Arab and Asian nations are also racing to evacuate their citizens from Sudan.

The Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) said the US and Saudi Arabia mediated the truce. Earlier, the two sides have not abided by several temporary truce deals.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced the agreement first and said it followed two days of intense negotiations. “During this period, the United States urges the SAF and RSF to immediately and fully uphold the ceasefire,” Blinken said in a statement.

He said the US would coordinate with regional, international and Sudanese civilian interests to create a committee that would oversee work on a permanent ceasefire and humanitarian arrangements.

Fighting which erupted between the SAF and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group on April 15, has killed at least 427 people, knocked out hospitals and other services, and turned residential areas into war zones. Millions of people remain trapped in their homes in the capital Khartoum and are running short on food supplies and water.

The RSF confirmed in Khartoum that it had agreed to the ceasefire, starting at midnight, to facilitate humanitarian efforts. “We affirm our commitment to a complete ceasefire during the truce period”, the RSF said. The SAF said on its Facebook page that it also agreed to the truce deal.

Ahead of the truce announcement, air strikes and ground fighting shook Omdurman, one of three adjacent cities in the capital region. There were also clashes in capital Khartoum, reports Al Jazeera.

Dark smoke enveloped the sky near the international airport in central Khartoum, adjacent to army headquarters, and booms of artillery fire rattled the surroundings.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the violence in a country that flanks the Red Sea, Horn of Africa and Sahel regions “risks a catastrophic conflagration … that could engulf the whole region and beyond”.

He urged the 15 members of the UN Security Council to use their clout to return Sudan to the path of democratic transition after a 2021 military coup that followed the fall of longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir in a popular uprising.

“We must all do everything within our power to pull Sudan back from the edge of the abyss … We stand with them at this terrible time,” Guterres said, adding that he had authorised temporary relocation of some UN personnel and families.

The Security Council has planned a meeting on Sudan on Tuesday. Foreign governments have also been working to evacuate their nationals to safety.

In Sudan, where a third of its 46 million people needed aid even before the violence, the situation has become increasingly bleak.

There were acute shortages of food, clean water, medicines and fuel and limited communications and electricity, with prices skyrocketing, said deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haq.

He also cited reports of looting of humanitarian supplies and said “intense fighting” in Khartoum as well as in Northern, Blue Nile, North Kordofan and Darfur states was hindering relief operations.

Several nations, including Canada, France, Poland, Switzerland and the United States, have halted embassy operations until further notice. Fighting calmed enough over the weekend for the United States and Britain to get embassy staff out, triggering a rush of evacuations of hundreds of foreign nationals by countries ranging from Gulf Arab states to Russia, Japan and South Korea.

Islamist autocrat Omar al-Bashir was overthrown in a popular uprising in 2019, and the army and RSF jointly mounted a 2021 military coup. But two years later, they fell out during negotiations to integrate and form a civilian government.