2023-05-03 03:06:24
Fierce fighting continued in Sudanaffected by a humanitarian “catastrophe”, but neighboring South Sudan said it had reached an “agreement in principle” between the two warring generals to a week’s truce. A previous truce, officially in force but violated from the start, ends Wednesday at midnight.
The leaders of the army and paramilitary forces at war in Sudan agreed to a seven-day truce from May 4 to 11, in a telephone interview with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir, the South Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Tuesday.
“Principle of truce”
“The general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (…) and the general Mohamed Hamdane Daglo (…) they agreed in principle to a seven-day truce from May 4 to 11,” the ministry announced in a statement. Both “gave their agreement (…) to the appointment of representatives to carry out peace negotiations that must be carried out in the place they choose,” the statement said.
But none of the previous truces was respected by the belligerents. The fighting, which began on April 15,have caused more than 500 deaths, mainly in Khartoum and Darfur (west)and thousands injured, according to a widely underestimated balance sheet.
The conflict plunged the country, one of the poorest in the world, into a “true catastrophe,” according to the UN. More than 330,000 people were displaced and another 100,000 left for neighboring countriess, according to the UN, which estimates there will be an eight times greater number of refugees. Those who remain suffer from a lack of water, electricity and food in Khartoum, one of the hottest cities in the world.
Sudan has been mired in conflict since April 15 when a proxy war broke out between army chief General Abdel Fatah al Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (FAR), led by General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
“Catastrophic Levels”
The President of Kenya, William RutoHe said the conflict has reached “catastrophic levels” and that the warring generals refuse “to heed calls from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the African Union and the international community for a ceasefire.” In a virtual meeting with senior UN officials, Ruto said it was imperative to find ways to send humanitarian aid “with or without a ceasefire.”
Burhan and Daglo, who are now rivals, they allied in a coup in 2021 to marginalize civilians from the government after the dictator was overthrown Omar al-Bashir, which halted the transition in the country. Both sides have broken several truces, the latest a 72-hour ceasefire agreed late on Sunday.
Help comes slowly
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that the aid program for Sudan by 2023 is only 14% funded and there is a lack of 1,500 million dollars to face the humanitarian crisisaggravated by fighting.
The UN humanitarian officer Martin Griffithsarrived in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Monday on a mission to find ways to send aid to the millions of civilians trapped in Sudan.
The chaos of the conflict included the bombing of hospitals and looting of humanitarian facilities, and forced foreign organizations to suspend most of their operations. UNHCR fears that more than 800,000 people will flee the fighting to neighboring countries.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the fighting weighed down the country’s health system, which was already extremely fragile, pushing it towards a “catastrophe” and that in the capital only 16 percent of hospitals operate at full capacity.
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