Military and Rapid Support Forces agree to extend ceasefire, but violence continues to shake in Khartoum and Darfur region.
The Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have agreed to extend their ceasefire amid ongoing violence in the capital Khartoum and the western region of Darfur.
In the final hours of the repeatedly broken three-day ceasefire, which was due to end at midnight (22:00 GMT) on Thursday, the military said it would extend the ceasefire for “another 72 hours” following Saudi mediation efforts and the United States.
On Thursday, warplanes patrolled over the northern suburbs of the capital as fighters on the ground exchanged artillery and heavy machine gun fire, witnesses told AFP news agency.
The previous ceasefire has not stopped the fighting, but it has created enough calm for tens of thousands of Sudanese to flee to safer areas and for foreign nations to evacuate hundreds of their citizens by land and sea.
The military and the RSF teamed up to overthrow a civilian government in an October 2021 coup, but are now embroiled in a power struggle that has derailed an internationally-backed transition to democracy and threatens to destabilize a fragile region.
The army claims it controls most regions of Sudan and defeats a major RSF deployment in Khartoum, where some residential areas have been turned into war zones.
Despite a partial lull in fighting since the first 72-hour ceasefire, airstrikes and anti-aircraft fire were heard in the capital and the nearby towns of Omdurman and Bahri on Thursday, Reuters witnesses and journalists said.
The White House said Thursday it was concerned about ceasefire violations, adding that the situation could worsen at any time and urging American citizens to leave within 24 to 48 hours.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the ceasefire was “imperfect” but “nevertheless reduced violence”.
Earlier this week, White House national security spokesman John Kirby also told Al Jazeera that reducing violence is Washington’s immediate priority.
“What we want, of course, is for the violence to stop completely, so that no more Sudanese lives are endangered and humanitarian aid can reach the people who need it,” Kirby said.
Hundreds dead
Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, reporting late Thursday in Khartoum, said “the focus of the international community and regional agencies currently appears to be on getting those two sides to stop fighting before turning to possible negotiations” on way to a long-term solution.
Since fierce fighting began on April 15, at least 512 people have been killed and nearly 4,200 injured. Violence has spread to the vast region of Darfur, where conflict has simmered since the outbreak of civil war 20 years ago.
The Darfur Bar Association, a human rights group, said at least 52 people were killed in attacks by well-armed “militias” on residential areas in the city of El Geneina, as well as on the main hospital, main market, government buildings and several IDP shelters.
Militia members from nomadic Arab tribes moved into El Geneina as fighting between the RSF and the military created a security vacuum in recent days, said one resident, who spoke to Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
They encountered armed members of the Masalit tribe, with clashes spreading across the city, sparking another wave of displacement.
The conflict is also limiting food supplies in the country, where a third of its 46 million inhabitants already depend on humanitarian aid. The World Food Program has said the violence could plunge millions more into hunger.
Abdou Dieng, the UN chief of aid in Sudan, said from Port Sudan on Thursday that he was “extremely concerned about the situation”.