It seems that all attempts at a solution collide with the personal influence struggle between Al-Burhan and Daglo, known as Hamidti, who together overthrew their civilian partners in 2021 after sharing power with them since the overthrow of President Omar Al-Bashir’s regime in 2019.
Khartoum woke up again, Monday, to the roar of warplanes and explosions, despite the agreement of the two conflicting parties to an additional extension of the armistice, at a time when the United Nations warned that the humanitarian situation had reached a “point of no return” and announced the dispatch of an envoy to the region to try to find out the conditions of millions of people caught in the middle of the fighting.
According to eyewitnesses in Khartoum, its residents woke up on Monday to the roar of “combat planes”, while others spoke of hearing the sounds of explosions and gunfire in different areas of the capital, which has a population of nearly five million.
This came hours after the army, led by Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, led by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, announced their agreement to extend a cease-fire that was scheduled to end at midnight Sunday-Monday (22:00 Sunday night GMT).
However, the recent truce remained fragile, like other attempts at calm that were agreed upon since the outbreak of the conflict between the two former allies on April 15, which plunged Sudan into chaos that claimed hundreds of lives and prompted tens of thousands to leave.
Experts believe that the cease-fire agreements aim, in particular, to ensure the security of the evacuation routes for foreign nationals, and to allow the continuation of some diplomatic efforts led by external parties in light of the two military commanders’ refusal to communicate directly.
It seems that all attempts at a solution collide with the personal influence struggle between Al-Burhan and Daglo, known as Hamidti, who together overthrew their civilian partners in 2021 after sharing power with them since the overthrow of President Omar Al-Bashir’s regime in 2019.
The United Nations sounded the alarm about the situation turning into a human tragedy.
“The events in Sudan are taking place at an unprecedented scale and speed,” said the spokesman for the Secretary-General of the UN, Stephane Dujarric, expressing his “great concern.” He added that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres decided to send “immediately to the region” the head of the humanitarian agency of the UN organization, Martin Griffiths, “in light of the rapid deterioration of the humanitarian crisis in Sudan.”
Griffiths confirmed that he is on his way to the region “to study how we can provide immediate assistance,” considering that “the humanitarian situation is approaching a point of no return” in a country that was considered one of the poorest in the world even before the outbreak of the recent conflict.
He warned that the looting of humanitarian organizations’ offices and warehouses had “drained most of our stocks”.
The battles left at least 528 dead and 4,599 wounded, according to figures announced by the Sudanese Ministry of Health on Saturday, in a toll that is likely to be higher.
With the conflict entering its third week, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Sunday managed to deliver the first shipment of humanitarian aid by air to the city of Port Sudan, located 850 km east of Khartoum.
The committee stated that the shipment “included surgical equipment to support Sudan’s hospitals and volunteers of the Sudanese Red Crescent Society who provide medical care to the wounded who were injured during the fighting,” but that it would only be sufficient to treat “1,500 wounded.”
The battles led to internal and external displacement.
According to United Nations estimates, 75,000 people moved to other parts of Sudan, at least 20,000 crossed to Chad, 6,000 to the Central African Republic, and others to Ethiopia and South Sudan. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had expressed its fear that the battles would push up to 270,000 people to flee towards Chad and South Sudan.
Clashes affect 12 of the 18 states in Sudan, which has a population of 45 million.
