(Khartoum) A new 72-hour truce came into effect Sunday in Sudan to try to deliver aid to this country at war for two months, on the eve of a humanitarian conference in Geneva.
Officially entered into force at 6 a.m. local time (midnight Eastern time), this umpteenth truce between the army, commanded by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (FSR) of General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, comes on the eve of an international conference in Geneva on aid to Sudan, sponsored by Saudi Arabia.
Both sides have once again pledged to cease all movement and attack to allow humanitarian aid to pass throughout this East African country, one of the poorest in the world, where more than 2,000 people have been killed since the start of the war on April 15, according to the NGO ACLED.
The UN estimates that more than 2.2 million people have been displaced by the conflict and that 25 of the 45 million inhabitants now depend on humanitarian aid to survive.
On Sunday, Kuwait announced, via the official Kuna news agency, “the dispatch of 10 tons of humanitarian aid” to Sudan, including medical equipment.
In the morning, Khartoum was “calm”, according to residents.
“The problem is that the days following the truce are usually very difficult. It’s as if the fighters wanted to make up for “the days of ceasefire,” said Hana Hassan, a resident of the center of the capital.
In Omdurman, a northern suburb of Khartoum, Sami Omar says he wants “a complete ceasefire, because a truce is not enough for us to return to our lives. »
PHOTO ARCHIVES AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Smoke rises over Khartoum on June 13.
“They can stop fighting, but the FSRs will not leave the houses [qu’ils occupent]and going through the checkpoints is as difficult” as during the days of fighting, he underlines.
Commitment from both sides
The clashes had escalated before both sides pledged to a truce in separate statements on Saturday night.
“Despite our commitment to the ceasefire, we will resolutely respond to any violations committed by the rebels [FSR, NDLR] during the truce, warned the army.
The paramilitaries for their part promised “to honor [leur] commitment to a complete cessation of hostilities in all areas of Sudan, with the primary aim of facilitating the delivery of life-saving humanitarian aid to civilians. »
Riyadh threatened on Saturday to “postpone” negotiations on its soil between the two camps “in the event that the parties do not respect the 72-hour ceasefire”. These talks, which began weeks ago, have so far failed to lead to any concrete agreement.
On Saturday, more civilians were killed, witnesses in Khartoum told AFP. The FSR accused the army of specifically targeting residential neighborhoods and claimed to have shot down a fighter plane.
In a video shared by the paramilitaries on Twitter on Saturday, brick houses can be seen destroyed and blankets covering what appear to be dead bodies.
Entire districts of the capital are deprived of drinking water and electricity only works for a few hours a week.
Humanitarian disaster in Darfur
The situation is even more alarming in Darfur, a vast region in the West where “violence is raging”, alerted the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Saturday.
Testimonies of large-scale violence against civilians are increasing there, and according to the UN, more than 149,000 people have fled to Chad since the outbreak of the armed conflict.
The President of Chad, General Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, visited the Chadian border town of Adré to see the scale of “the influx of refugees and to ensure the effective closure of the borders with Sudan” , the Chadian presidency announced in a statement on Saturday.
In recent days, “6,000 people have fled El-Geneina”, the capital of West Darfur, for Adré, according to MSF.
“The situation is frankly overwhelming,” said Dr.r Seybou Diarra, MSF coordinator for the Adré region, who received “622 wounded, most of them by gunshot, in three days”.
Already devastated in the 2000s by a particularly bloody war, Darfur is heading towards a new “humanitarian disaster” that the world must prevent, pleaded on Thursday the head of the UN for humanitarian affairs, Martin Griffiths.
The head of the UN mission in Sudan, Volker Perthes, now persona non grata in Khartoum, said on Tuesday he was “particularly alarmed” by the situation in Darfur where the violence could constitute “crimes against humanity”.