Day: June 10, 2023

Whether Sudan’s warring parties stick to the latest U.S.-Saudi Arabian-brokered cease-fire agreement remains an open question. What is not in doubt is that Saturday’s 24-hour truce has capped another murderous week of intense fighting in which civilians were the main victims.

Since fighting between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces erupted April 15, Sudan’s Federal Ministry of Health says nearly 800 people have been killed and 5,800 wounded.

The U.N. refugee agency said Friday 1.42 million people have become internally displaced and nearly half a million have crossed borders as refugees.

This past week alone, fighting between Sudan’s rival factions in and around the capital, Khartoum, has taken a heavy toll on civilian lives. Attacks against a busy livestock market, residential areas and a refugee center reportedly killed dozens of people.

While people are dying from shelling and gunfire, the lack of humanitarian aid and a rapidly deteriorating human rights situation are compounding their misery.

Jeremy Laurence, UNHCR spokesman, said Friday his office has received concerning reports of conflict-related sexual violence.

“Since the fighting began, our office has received credible reports of 12 incidents of sexual violence related to the conflict against at least 37 women—although the number could be far higher.

“In at least three incidents, the victims were young girls. In one case, 18 to 20 women were reportedly raped.”

Laurence said growing reports of apparent enforced disappearance and arbitrary detention were another cause for concern. He said that journalists were at heightened risk “amid a rise in online hate speech and disinformation.”

“Our office has learnt of a list circulating on social media accusing certain journalists of being supporters of the RSF. We have observed comments on Facebook calling for the killing of the journalists on the list,” he said.

Alfonso Verdu Perez, the outgoing head of delegation for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Khartoum, said Friday he was present when the conflict began in mid-April and since has witnessed the heavy toll combat and violence have taken on the civilian infrastructure of the densely populated city.

“Electricity and water levels have been severely damaged. We fear outbreaks of diseases because many residents have had no choice but to use unsafe drinking water from the river, from the Nile and other sources. At the same time, food and fuel prices have skyrocketed and the situation has been made worse for many people by the fact that they cannot even access their money in their banks.”

Perez said the situation in Darfur was equally worrying. He said robberies and looting were on the rise, power stations and markets have been looted. He said more than 200 people reportedly were killed in the town of El Geneina in western Darfur in just a few days early last month.

He warned that this flare-up of violence could easily escalate and worsen the already dire humanitarian situation in the region.

“Health care may collapse at any moment, despite the best efforts of Sudanese doctors and nurses who have continued working in extremely difficult conditions caring for the wounded and providing other essential health care services to communities.”

The Red Cross official said conditions in Khartoum were no better, saying that only an estimated 20% of the city’s health facilities were still functioning. Those facilities, he said, were facing severe shortages of water, power, food, and essential medical supplies were running low.

Source: Voice of America

The two warring factions in Sudan entered into a cease-fire 6 a.m. Saturday, local time.

There are apprehensions that the 24-hour deal will collapse before it ends; a number of other truces have already failed.

U.S. and Saudi mediators have warned they may pull out of mediation efforts if Saturday’s cease-fire collapses.

“A one-day truce is much less than we aspire for,” Khartoum North resident Mahmud Bashir told Agence France-Presse. “We look forward to an end to this damned war.”

The hourslong deal opens the opportunity for humanitarian assistance.

Fighting erupted in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, and surrounding locations, in mid-April, between two rival generals – Abdel Fattah al-Burhan from Sudan’s army and Burhan’s former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Da, who leads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The fighting has also spread elsewhere.

Close to 2,000 people have been killed in the fighting, while nearly 2 million have been displaced.

Source: Voice of America

Clashes between ethnic groups in a South Sudanese civilian protection camp have left 13 people dead and 20 injured, the UN humanitarian agency said.

A 14-year-old boy from the Shilluk community was stabbed to death on Thursday, triggering “intercommunal violence” at the Malakal camp in northern South Sudan, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

The clashes killed 13 people, injured 20 and suspended the transport to the site of South Sudanese fleeing the conflict in neighbouring Sudan.

Humanitarian activities at the camp “have been hampered due to insecurity”, OCHA added.

South Sudan has enjoyed little stability since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011.

A civil war tore apart the world’s youngest nation between 2013 and 2018, leaving more than 350,000 people dead, while natural disasters have also struck the country.

President Salva Kiir and his rival Riek Machar formed a transitional government and agreed to unite their armed forces to end the conflict.

But armed violence continues and the majority of the population lives below the poverty line despite its vast oil reserves.

The UN mission in South Sudan is one of the organisation’s most expensive, with an annual budget of more than $1 billion and the deployment of 17,000 soldiers

Source: Nam News Network

Sudan’s warring generals have agreed to a 24-hour ceasefire from Saturday, US and Saudi mediators said, acknowledging that previous attempts to pause a conflict now nearing its third month had proved abortive.

Multiple truces have been agreed and broken since fighting erupted on April 15, and Washington had slapped sanctions on both rival generals after the last attempt collapsed at the end of May.

“Representatives of the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) agreed to a 24-hour countrywide ceasefire beginning on June 10 at 6:00 am,” said a joint statement from the mediators released by the Saudi foreign ministry on Friday.

“Should the parties fail to observe the 24-hour ceasefire, facilitators will be compelled to consider adjourning” talks in the Saudi city of Jeddah which have been suspended since late last month, the mediators said.

The fighting has gripped the capital Khartoum and the western region of Darfur, killing upwards of 1,800 people, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

Nearly two million people have been displaced, including 476,000 who have sought refuge in neighbouring countries, the United Nations says.

The Saudi and US mediators said they “share the frustration of the Sudanese people about the uneven implementation of previous ceasefires”.

The army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, said it has “agreed to the proposal”, adding in a statement it “declares its commitment to the ceasefire”.

The paramilitary RSF, commanded by Burhan’s former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, later said in a statement: “We affirm our full commitment to the ceasefire.”

Both statements said the truce could support humanitarian efforts, while cautioning against violations by their opponents.

“If observed, the 24-hour ceasefire will provide an important opportunity… for the parties to undertake confidence-building measures which could permit resumption of the Jeddah talks,” the US-Saudi statement said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday wrapped up a three-day visit to Saudi Arabia, where he held discussions on Sudan with top Saudi officials.

Alfonso Verdu Perez, outgoing head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Sudan, warned on Friday that “health care may collapse at any moment”.

“The needs are immense and much more remains to be done” in both Khartoum and Darfur, he told reporters in Geneva.

About one fifth of medical facilities in the capital are still functioning but face “severe shortages” of water, food and electricity, and “are running low on essential medical supplies”, he added.

Witnesses reported hearing clashes on Friday near the Yarmouk weapons manufacturing and arms depot complex in Khartoum, from where plumes of smoke were seen rising for a second day.

Air strikes were also carried out in eastern parts of the capital and the sound of anti-aircraft fire was heard, with witnesses also reporting artillery fire and clashes in Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city across the Nile.

Those unable to leave have been forced to camp out for weeks as supplies of food and other vital goods run low

Source: Nam News Network

Residents say an uneasy calm has returned to Sudan’s capital city, Khartoum, after the country’s warring generals agreed to a 24-hour truce that was brokered by Saudi Arabia.

Previous attempts at ceasefires between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have failed.

People are using the brief pause in fighting to buy food and medicines.

At least 1.5 million Sudanese have fled their homes since the conflict began in April, according to UN estimates.

The truce is meant to hold until 07:00 local time (05:00 GMT) on Sunday.

It is not clear if Saturday’s ceasefire is being respected in Darfur, the region where some of the worst atrocities have been committed during this conflict. Humanitarian groups say it is almost impossible to deliver aid to the area.

Earlier this week Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry warned that if the ceasefire failed, the country would consider suspending peace efforts.

Saudi Arabia and the US have both tried to broker peace.

After the previous attempt at talks collapsed in May, the US sanctioned the two rival generals – Sudan’s army chief and de facto leader Gen Fattah al-Burhan, and RSF leader Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagolo.

People living in Khartoum are sceptical that Saturday’s truce will hold and are desperate for an end to a conflict that has killed hundreds of civilians.

“A one-day truce is much less than we aspire for,” Mahmud Bashir told the AFP news agency.

“We look forward to an end to this damned war.”

Source: BBC