2023-04-25 01:46:00
The Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Response Forces (RSF), locked in fierce clashes after the coup, agreed on Monday, after “intense” negotiations mediated by the United States, on a 72-hour ceasefire starting Monday for midnight, reported the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.
“During this period, the United States urges the Rapid Response Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces to honor the ceasefire immediately and in its entirety,” indicated in a brief statement published in the Department of State.
The blink specified that his country “It will coordinate with regional and international partners, as well as civilian stakeholders to assist in the creation of a committee” to oversee the “permanent cessation of hostilities” and humanitarian assistance.”
The agreement was later confirmed by the RSF paramilitaries.who in their official Twitter profile affirmed their “full willingness to cooperate, coordinate and provide all the facilities that allow expatriates and diplomatic missions to leave the country safely.”
“We affirm our commitment during the period of the declared armistice and warn against the continued violations of the second party (the Army of Sudan) in the breach of the same”they added in another statement released by the Europa Press news agency.
This comes shortly after the Sudanese Army reported that the assistant to the Egyptian military attaché in Khartoum was killed “by the bullets of the rebel militias”, an information that, however, was denied by the Egyptian authorities.
“Egyptian Ambassador to Khartoum Hany Sala confirms that all members of the Egyptian diplomatic mission are safe, including those who work in the defense office,” The Embassy said in a statement.
The Sudanese Armed Forces also accused the RSF of targeting citizens, destroying their houses and engaging in large battles in residential neighborhoods, using civilians as shields.”
The hostilities broke out in the context of an increase in tensions around the integration of the RSF led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, alias Hemedti, who is also vice president of the Sovereign Transition Council within the Armed Forces, a key part of a agreement signed in December to form a new civil government and reactivate the transition.
Later, The United States has warned that the Russian mercenary group Wagner risks escalating the conflict in Sudan and has dispatched ships to help its citizens trying to leave the troubled country.
“We have great concern about the involvement of Prighozin’s group, the Wagner group, in Sudan,” Blinken told a news conference, referring to the founder of the Kremlin-linked mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
He added that the presence of the Wagner group, which has been active in Mali, the Central African Republic and the Russian intervention in Ukraine, “brings with it more death and destruction.”
Nonethelessforeigners continued to leave Sudan this Monday amid fighting that has already left hundreds dead, and the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), António Guterres, said that the conflict threatens to spread to northeast Africa.
“The violence must stop. There is a risk of a catastrophic conflagration inside Sudan that could engulf the entire region and beyond,” Guterres emphasized in a speech before the Security Council, the UN’s highest body, in New York. .
The violence of the African countryof about 45 million inhabitants, It broke out on April 15, and is part of a power struggle between the head of the Army, General Abdel Fatah al-Burhan, and the head of the Rapid Support Forces, General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
According to the UN, more than 420 people have been killed and more than 3,700 wounded in the fighting, which has mainly affected Khartoum.the capital, the neighboring city of Omdurman, and the western region of Darfur.
The World Food Program has warned that millions more could go hungry due to violence in Africa’s third-largest country, where in normal times a third of the population needs humanitarian aid.
China, Sudan’s major trading partner, withdrew a first contingent and several Arab capitals also evacuated hundreds of their nationals.
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