The camps of the two warring generals in Sudan have agreed to a 24-hour truce, the Saudi mediator announced on Friday, as clashes continue near the country’s largest military complex.
The truce is to apply “throughout Sudan from (Saturday) June 10 at 06:00 a.m. Khartoum time,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
This is yet another truce, after many others which have hardly been respected, in this war which began on April 15 between the army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, and the paramilitaries of the Forces rapid support (FSR) of General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo.
The parties pledged to cease violence for the duration of the truce and to allow “the arrival of humanitarian aid throughout the country”, according to the statement.
The general command of the armed forces, however, reserves the “right to respond to any violation that the rebels may commit” during the truce, he said on Facebook.
“We reiterate our full commitment to the ceasefire,” the paramilitaries then reacted.
“We hope that the army will respect the truce and not hinder the humanitarian aid efforts,” they added in a statement.
The war has already claimed more than 1,800 lives, according to the organization ACLED, which specializes in collecting information in conflict zones, as well as two million displaced persons and refugees according to the UN.
In the combat zones, which take place mainly in the capital Khartoum and the vast region of Darfur (west), the NGOs continue to warn of the deterioration of the humanitarian situation.
“In Khartoum, we estimate that only 20% of health establishments are still functioning,” said Friday the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Alfonso Verdu Perez, during a press conference in Geneva.
“In recent weeks, we have managed to deliver surgical equipment to ten hospitals” in the capital, “but the needs are immense and there is still a lot to do”, he added, pointing to serious water shortages , electricity, food and medical supplies.
“If the parties do not respect the 24-hour ceasefire, the mediators should consider adjourning the Jeddah talks,” the Saudi and American mediators, who have been overseeing negotiations for weeks between the two sides, warned in the statement. two camps in Saudi Arabia.
Riyadh said last week that it was seeking with the Americans to “continue discussions” to reach an “effective” ceasefire, after negotiations were officially suspended.
“Persona non grata”
Visiting Riyadh on Wednesday, the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken assured that Washington and Riyadh were committed to “continuing their solid cooperation and putting an end to the fighting in Sudan. »
On the diplomatic level, the Sudanese government declared on the night of Thursday to Friday persona non grata the UN envoy to Sudan, the German Volker Perthes, accusing him of taking sides in the conflict.
This measure was decided following the refusal of the UN to replace this diplomat, because Mr. Perthes “has taken a stand for certain political parties and insisted that political life includes only certain parties and excludes others. “, According to a government source on condition of anonymity.
At the end of May, in a letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the head of the Sudanese army had demanded the dismissal of Mr. Perthes, accusing him of being responsible for the war.
Mr. Perthes – who was Thursday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for a series of diplomatic talks according to the UN – had then received the “absolute confidence” of Mr. Guterres and several countries of the Security Council of the United Nations.
On the ground, clashes continued on Friday near Sudan’s largest military complex, the Yarmouk factory in Khartoum, witnesses told AFP.
On the night of Wednesday to Thursday, witnesses reported a huge noise and the outbreak of a fire after the explosion of a tank at the Al-Shajara oil installation, near the Yarmouk site.
The fighting there has been going on for more than 48 hours, they say.
Artillery clashes also took place on Friday in Omdurman, a city on the outskirts of Khartoum, according to witnesses.
On Wednesday, the paramilitaries announced “a new victory with the capture of the Yarmouk complex and its ammunition depots”, assuring that the army soldiers were routed.
Visible for more than 10 km, columns of smoke rise in the sky of the capital. Neighborhoods in the east were hit by aerial bombardment on Friday, according to residents who say they regularly hear the thud of anti-aircraft guns.