Fighting continues in Sudan despite new ceasefire extension

Sudan’s rival forces have accused each other of new ceasefire violations as their deadly conflict dragged on for a third week despite warnings of a slide into civil war.

Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands injured since a long-simmering power struggle between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted into conflict on April 15.

Both sides said a formal ceasefire that was due to end at midnight on Sunday would be extended for another 72 hours.

The military said it hoped what it called the “rebels” would stick to the deal, but it believed they intended to continue the attacks. The sides have continued to fight through a series of ceasefires reached through mediators, including the United States.

Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan said from Khartoum that people there “have not reacted much” to the extension announcement.

“They have seen how the previous ceasefires worked out. They have seen the repeated airstrikes by the Sudanese army, the artillery strikes by the Rapid Support Forces,” she said. “So many of them say this ceasefire is likely to end, just like the other previous ceasefires.”

The situation in Khartoum, where the army is battling RSF forces entrenched in residential areas, was relatively calm on Sunday morning, a Reuters journalist said, after heavy clashes were heard near the city center on Saturday evening.

The army said on Sunday it had destroyed RSF convoys heading towards Khartoum from the west. The RSF said the army had used artillery and fighter jets to attack its positions in a number of areas in Khartoum province.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

‘No direct negotiations’

During the fighting in Khartoum, the RSF forces have so far fanned out over the city, while the army mainly tries to attack them using airstrikes from drones and fighter jets.

The conflict has caused tens of thousands of people to flee Sudan’s borders and sparked warnings that the country could disintegrate, destabilizing an unstable region and sending foreign governments rushing to evacuate their nationals.

Sudanese journalist Mohamed Alamin Ahmed told Al Jazeera from Khartoum that people there have many reasons to flee.

“People are fleeing Khartoum not only because of the humanitarian situation and the bombs that have fallen on civilian homes due to indiscriminate shelling and airstrikes, but also because of the looting of civilians on the streets and even in their homes,” he told Al Jazeera.

The US government and multinational partners have helped nearly 1,000 Americans leave Sudan since the recent violence began, as a second government convoy arrived in Port Sudan on Sunday, according to the US State Department.

U.S. citizens and others eligible for the convoy would continue on to Saudi Arabia, where personnel had been deployed to facilitate emergency travel, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement Sunday.

The UK announced on Monday that it had arranged an additional evacuation flight from Port Sudan on the eastern coast of the Red Sea.

But to underline the magnitude of the instability, Canada said it was halting its evacuation flights due to “dangerous conditions”.

The prospects for negotiations have turned out to be bleak.

“There are no direct negotiations, there are preparations for talks,” United Nations Special Representative to Sudan Volker Perthes told reporters in Port Sudan, adding that regional and international countries were working with the two sides.

Perthes, who told Reuters on Saturday that the parties were more open to negotiations than before, said he hoped a direct meeting between representatives of the parties would take place as soon as possible with the aim of “reaching an organized cease-fire” firing with a controller”.

Army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has said he will never sit down with RSF chief General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, who in turn said he would not talk until after the army ceased hostilities.

The conflict has derailed an internationally-sponsored political transition aimed at establishing democratic government in Sudan, where former autocratic president Omar al-Bashir was ousted in 2019 after three decades in power.

At least 528 people were killed and 4,599 injured in the fighting, according to the Ministry of Health. The UN has reported a similar number of deaths, but believes the true number is much higher.