‘Most fearless’ fighting in Sudan after 24-hour ceasefire ends
Fighting resumed with renewed intensity after a brief period of calm on Saturday, the calmest since Sudan erupted into conflict nearly eight weeks ago, when a rivalry between the army and its rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) exploded into open warfare.
Within 30 minutes of the end of the ceasefire on Sunday morning, airstrikes, artillery fire and machine gun fire could be heard in several parts of the country, according to Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, reporting from Sudan.
While Saturday was the calmest day since the conflict began, Sunday’s fighting was the “feariest,” with residents hiding for safety, she added.
Witnesses said fighting resumed in northern Omdurman, in el-Geneina near the border with Chad, and in el-Obeid, the capital of the state of North Kordofan, southwest of Khartoum.
The ceasefire brokered by the United States and Saudi Arabia has been established to facilitate the safe passage of much-needed humanitarian aid throughout the country. It was also hoped that it would stop the fighting that has been raging since April 15.
Morgan said during the 24-hour ceasefire, some aid groups were able to reach those in need, with people in the southern part of the capital also leaving their homes to replenish supplies of essential goods.
But in the northern part of the capital, people remained trapped without help, she said.
Darfur
Meanwhile, the situation in West Darfur has been described as “catastrophic,” Morgan reported.
Particularly in El-Geneina, where communications have been disrupted for weeks, there are new waves of attacks by Arab nomad tribes linked to the RSF.
These militias, Morgan said, target people based on ethnicity. The West Darfur doctors’ syndicate calls the killings, which killed more than 1,000 people, equivalent to genocide.
The violence has caused people to flee to neighboring Chad in recent weeks, a harrowing and risky journey, according to Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi in the Chadian town of Adre on the border with Sudan.
Abdulkareem Haroon, a man who fled el-Geneina to Adre, said he was beaten and flogged and lost his brother on the journey.
“I don’t know if they killed him or took him,” Haroon told Al Jazeera.
El-Obeid, on a major route to Darfur, is said to be under martial law, and residents say supplies of food and medicine have been cut off.
“The situation is difficult. The RSF are scattered on the roads between the villages and they are looting, and gangs are looting everywhere. Moving from one place to another became dangerous,” Mohamed Salman, a resident of North Kordofan, told Reuters news agency.
“We don’t know how we will plant or how we will live in this situation.”
The wider Kordofan region is an important agricultural area, a source of livestock, oilseeds and gum arabic.
According to estimates by the International Organization for Migration, more than 1.4 million people have been internally displaced within Sudan and another 476,800 have fled to neighboring countries, most of whom are already struggling with poverty and internal conflict.
About half of the refugees move north to Egypt. On Saturday, Egypt tightened its visa rules for Sudanese nationals fleeing war, requiring a visa before crossing the border, and reversing an exemption for women and children.