Riyadh – Khartoum – continued
Publication date: May 29, 2023 11:45 pm (KSA)
Yesterday, Riyadh and Washington welcomed the agreement of the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces to extend the ceasefire agreement for 5 days. The US Department of State’s Office of African Affairs said: “An extension of the truce in Sudan will allow time for additional humanitarian assistance and the restoration of essential services.” Yesterday, the Sudanese capital witnessed violent clashes hours before the end of a truce agreement that brought some calm to the six-week conflict and allowed only a small amount of humanitarian aid to be delivered. In addition, Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, Minister of Foreign Affairs, yesterday, together with British Secretary of State James Cleverley, reviewed the Kingdom’s efforts to support political solutions in the Republic of the Sudan, and also discussed the Kingdom’s tireless efforts to overcome differences. the Sudanese parties by hosting them at the Jeddah talks and the resulting short-term ceasefire and humanitarian agreements. Large parts of Khartoum saw heavy and continuous clashes in the hours before the truce agreement expired, which provided some lull in the six-week-long conflict and allowed only a small amount of humanitarian aid to arrive, and clashes continued from Sunday to yesterday in the south and west of Omdurman, one of three neighboring cities that make up Khartoum state, and residents of southern Khartoum on the other side of the Nile River reported clashes that took place late Sunday evening. The Saudi-American statement confirmed that both sides of the conflict in Sudan violated the truce, which prevented the arrival of humanitarian aid, and also used military aircraft and drones, indicating that the violation of the truce in Sudan included the occupation of civilian homes, private companies and public buildings. The statement indicated that snipers were under surveillance in areas controlled by the Rapid Support Forces and that units of the Sudanese army seized medical supplies at two sites, stressing that Saudi Arabia and America called on the two parties to the conflict in Sudan to extend the truce, despite the fact that that does not fully comply with it. In turn, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Program said in a joint report that “Haiti, the Sahel region (Burkina Faso and Mali) and Sudan have been raised to the highest level of concern” about the availability of food for population, and added that “this is due to the severe restrictions on the movement of people and goods in Haiti, as well as in Burkina Faso and Mali, as well as the recent outbreak of conflict in Sudan.” The report warned that the power struggle between the army commander-in-chief and his opponent in Sudan that erupted in April is likely to have “significant repercussions for neighboring countries.” Thus, four countries join the list, which includes Afghanistan, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, which are on high alert and require “urgent attention”. Part of the population of these countries suffers or may be subject to famine, which is a phase of “catastrophe” (stage 5), the highest food security rating, and the population of these countries is at risk of deteriorating to catastrophic conditions, since, in fact, they are in a state of emergency ( Step 4).
