Fierce fighting continued Tuesday in Sudan between the army and paramilitaries, causing a humanitarian “catastrophe”, according to the international community, which is increasing initiatives on the diplomatic field.
“We hear gunshots, military planes and anti-aircraft fire,” a Khartoum resident told AFP.
Other witnesses confirm “aerial bombardments” in various districts of the capital in the grip of chaos since the chief of the army Abdel Fattah al-Burhane and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, at the head of the paramilitaries of the Support Forces Rapid (FSR), went to war for power on April 15.
More than 500 people have been killed, mainly in Khartoum and Darfur, and thousands injured, according to a widely understated toll.
A new truce, violated from the start, must end on Wednesday at midnight. It nevertheless allows evacuations to continue, Russia and Pakistan having announced on Tuesday the departure of hundreds of their nationals.
More than 330,000 people have been displaced and 100,000 have left for neighboring countries according to the UN, which expects eight times as many refugees. Those who remain endure water, electricity and food shortages in Khartoum, one of the hottest cities in the world.
“Technical talk”
The conflict has plunged the country, one of the poorest in the world, into a “real disaster”, according to the UN, which has received “only 14%” of the funds requested this year: 1.5 billion dollars are missing. On call.
But for Kenyan President William Ruto, one of the regional mediators, the two generals refuse “to hear the calls” of the international community.
Americans, Saudis and African leaders are currently seeking to enforce the truce. On this point, the two belligerents assure “to be ready to start technical discussions”, said the UN envoy to Sudan, Volker Perthes.
But they will not be “face-to-face” and “could be held in Saudi Arabia”, before a return to political negotiations is possible, he insisted.
The two generals were to see each other on April 15, but they preferred to let the arms speak, Mr. Perthes had said in recent days.
The two men had joined forces in 2021 to oust the civilians with whom they had shared power since the fall of dictator Omar al-Bashir two years earlier by a putsch. But then differences arose to turn into open war when the rivals in fatigues failed to agree on the integration of the FSR into the army.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken “reiterated US support” for diplomatic efforts to “end the conflict” and ensure “unimpeded humanitarian access”.
After the Saudi authorities, an emissary of General Burhane met the Egyptian authorities in Cairo, where the Arab League has been discussing Sudan since Monday.
” Work together “
But the African Union (AU) called for “avoiding the inconsistencies of dispersed action”. “Our priority today is to enforce and prolong the ceasefire,” said Moussa Faki, chairman of the AU Commission.
The objective is “the resumption of the political process in the country”, he added, insisting on the importance “of working together”.
“The longer we take to coordinate our efforts, the more we lose chances of helping to resolve this crisis,” approved Ethiopian Ismail Wais, representative of IGAD, a regional bloc in East Africa.
In any case, “without decisive intervention, the most likely scenario is that of a protean, long and bloody civil war”, writes Ernst Jan Hogendoorn for Atlantic Council.
This expert from Sudan expects a “staggering humanitarian disaster, similar to that in Somalia, Syria or Yemen”, with a risk of regional destabilization.
From Nairobi, the head of the UN for humanitarian affairs, Martin Griffiths, is trying to negotiate the entry of aid while the bombings and looting have spared neither hospitals nor humanitarian organizations.
Aid, however, arrives in dribs and drabs: MSF sent “ten tons” of medical supplies on Tuesday after six containers from the WHO and a plane from the Red Cross.
The situation is even more critical in West Darfur, bordering Chad, where violence has killed, according to the UN, a hundred people since last week, in this region traumatized by a bloody war in the 2000s.