an “agreement in principle” found for a seven-day truce

2023-05-02 21:44:00

So far, no ceasefire has been observed. South Sudan announced on Tuesday that it has reached an “agreement in principle” as violent clashes continue.

By NJ with AFP

Will the seven-day truce announced by South Sudan be respected, unlike the others?
© – / AFP

Published on 05/02/2023 at 9:44 p.m.

LWill the next truce attempt be the right one in Sudan? Tuesday, May 2, the South Sudanese neighbor assured that he had won an “agreement in principle” from the two warring generals for a one-week truce. Since April 15, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhane and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, at the head of the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), have been vying for power, plunging Sudan into a “genuine disaster,” according to the UN.

So far, no ceasefire has been observed. Including the one in force since Monday, May 1 and violated from its start. It has therefore been more than two weeks that the country has been plagued by fierce fighting between the two generals. This truce “from May 4 to 11” announced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Sudan could therefore be a breath of fresh air for the inhabitants.

No belligerent confirmed this truce

Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, welcomed the announcement. “First, of course, we will have to see if it is accepted by all parties,” he nevertheless said during a press briefing. However, no belligerent immediately commented on the South Sudanese declaration. In the meantime, several witnesses have reported “aerial bombardments” in Khartoum.

Acting on the initiative of the East African regional organization Igad, South Sudanese President Salva Kiir pleaded for them to take advantage of this truce “to appoint representatives and propose a date for the start of negotiations” in order to obtain a permanent ceasefire. A few days earlier, it was the UN envoy to Sudan, Volker Perthes, who had indicated that the two belligerents had said they were “ready to start technical discussions” which “could be held in Saudi Arabia”. But a return to political negotiations will only be possible after a real truce, he insisted.

After the Saudi authorities, an emissary from General Burhane met with the Egyptian authorities and the Arab League. He too pleaded for the international community to negotiate a truce.

READ ALSOOccupied laboratory in Sudan: “an enormous biological risk”, according to the WHOAs calls for a truce multiply, the African Union (AU) has called for avoiding “dispersed action”. “Our priority today is to enforce and extend the ceasefire,” said Moussa Faki, chairman of the AU Commission. The objective is “the resumption of the political process in the country”. “Without decisive intervention, the most likely scenario is that of a protean, long and bloody civil war”, warns, for his part, Ernst Jan Hogendoorn, for Atlantic Council.

A staggering humanitarian disaster

Since the clashes began, more than 500 people have died and thousands have been injured, mostly in Khartoum and western Darfur, according to health ministry figures. A balance sheet which could be largely underestimated according to the UN. More than 330,000 people have been displaced and 100,000 have left for neighboring countries, according to the UN, which expects eight times as many refugees. And those who remain have to live with shortages of water, electricity and food.

Ernst Jan Hogendoorn, an expert on Sudan, expects a “staggering humanitarian catastrophe, similar to that in Somalia, Syria or Yemen”, with a risk of regional destabilization. From Nairobi, the head of the UN for humanitarian affairs, Martin Griffiths, is trying to negotiate the entry of aid while the bombings and looting have spared neither hospitals nor humanitarian organizations.

READ ALSOSudan: this day when the fuse was lit between soldiers and militiamenThe aid, however, arrives in dribs and drabs: Doctors Without Borders (MSF) sent “ten tons” of medical supplies on Tuesday, after six containers from the WHO and a plane from the Red Cross.

The integration of the FSR in the army, source of the conflict

After France or the United States, Russia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have indicated that they have evacuated hundreds of their nationals.

In their 2021 putsch, Burhane and Daglo together ousted the civilians with whom they had shared power since the fall of dictator Omar al-Bashir two years earlier. But they are divided on the question of the integration of the FSR in the army.