After the army withdrew from negotiations and the most recent ceasefire broke down, the United States warned on Thursday that it will only be prepared to arbitrate a truce between Sudan’s warring sides when they get “serious.”
After leaving the peace negotiations in the Saudi city of Jeddah on Wednesday, the army attacked the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) barracks, accusing its adversary of violating the aid-bringing ceasefire. According to the US, “serious violations of the ceasefire by both sides” had occurred.
“Once the forces make clear by their actions that they are serious about complying with the ceasefire, the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are prepared to resume facilitation of the suspended discussions to find a negotiated solution to this conflict,” a State Department spokesperson said.
“These violations have led us as a facilitator of these talks to seriously question whether the parties are ready to take the actions needed to meet the obligations they have undertaken on behalf of the Sudanese people,” he said.
Wednesday saw important RSF bases under the command of commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo being targeted by forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in both north and south Khartoum, residents told AFP.
On the 47th day of a conflict that, according to analysts, has already cost 1,800 lives, a witness reported “heavy artillery fire from army camps” in the northern part of the capital.
Another source claimed there had been “artillery blasts on the RSF camp in Al-Salha” in southern Khartoum, which is home to the city’s biggest paramilitary facility and arsenal.
Two days prior to the strikes, US and Saudi mediators reported that the warring sides had agreed to extend the initial week-long humanitarian ceasefire by five days.
Although they have recognised several violations, the Jeddah-based mediators have refrained from taking any action.
Under the condition of anonymity, a Sudanese government official said that the army withdrew “because the rebels have never implemented a single one of the provisions of a short-term ceasefire which required their withdrawal from hospitals and residential buildings”.
Although the truce had been “inadequately observed,” the extension would “permit further humanitarian efforts,” according to the mediators.
Fighting has broken out this week in western Darfur and greater Khartoum despite repeated promises from both sides. During a visit to the troops in the capital, Burhan stated, “The army is prepared to fight until victory.”
The RSF declared that they would “exercise their right to defend themselves” and charged the army with breaking the cease-fire.
The postponement of the negotiations should “not discourage” mediation attempts, according to African Union spokesman Mohamed El Hacen Lebatt, who spoke to AFP.
After Burhan called for Volker Perthes to be fired as the UN’s representative to Sudan, Antonio Guterres reaffirmed his support for Perthes on Wednesday.
“It is up to the Security Council to decide whether the Security Council supports the continuation of the mission for another period or whether the Security Council decides that it is time to end it,” he said.
Following a meeting with the East African group IGAD and other representatives, he declared that a proposal for extensive negotiations with all Sudanese would be made as soon as feasible.
The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project estimates that more than 1 800 individuals have died since fighting started on April 15.
The UN estimates that over 425 000 people have fled to nearby countries, leaving 1.2 million people internally displaced.
Yaqout Abderrahim fled Khartoum for Port Sudan, where she has been waiting for a flight out for 15 days in hopes of securing a rare seat.
“We want to leave at any price because our houses are destroyed and we no longer have any means to raise our children,” she told AFP among families camped out on the ground.
According to the UN, 25 million people, or more than half the population, currently need assistance and protection.
Three-quarters of hospitals in battle zones are inoperable, and entire areas of Khartoum no longer have access to running water or power.
Despite rival groups’ agreement to extend a cease-fire meant to halt nearly two weeks of fighting that has killed hundreds and left vast wreckage, fighting continued in Sudan on April 28.
On Wednesday, the health ministry said that “nine health facilities” had been shut down in Jazira state, which is located immediately south of Khartoum, “despite the declared truce.”
The “presence of RSF militias threatening the movement of medical staff and supplies” was to blame, it said.
In Darfur, on Sudan’s western border with Chad, hundreds of people have died as a result of ongoing fighting that “blatantly disregards ceasefire commitments,” according to Toby Harward of the UN refugee agency.
Strongman Omar al-Bashir unleashed the Janjaweed militia, from which the RSF are sprung, in response to a rebel rebellion in Darfur in 2003, starting a war that lasted for years and from which the region has never fully recovered.
According to experts, Burhan is under increasing pressure from his own Islamist backers and the survivors of the Bashir administration, with whom he had formed a mutually beneficial alliance in order to seize power.
