Khartoum – Capitals of the World – Continued
Publication date: April 27, 2023 10:55 pm (KSA)
While ceasefire violations continue, Arab countries, the United States and African countries are seeking an extension of the truce in Sudan. And the Sudanese army has given tentative approval to an African proposal calling for negotiations even as fighting continues. The African Union called on the Ambassadors of the African Group in Cairo to listen to a briefing by the Acting Ambassador of the Sudan to Egypt, Al-Sadiq Omar Abdullah, on the situation in Sudan. And the Umma National Party in Sudan considered in statements broadcast by Al-Arabiya TV “the Saudi Arabian initiative to be more complete than the IGAD initiative”, emphasizing that it “encompasses all political forces and is not limited to two generals.” The party stated that “the commander of the Rapid Support Forces advised Hamidati not to succumb to provocations from the Islamists”, adding: “We tried to convince Al-Burhan and Hamidati to stop this war, which was what the remnants mobilized for it wanted. The National Umma Party called on the “Rapid Support Forces to leave the cities and not be stationed among civilians”, noting that the release of former regime leaders from prisons would escalate the war. And on Wednesday, the Sudanese army announced that its leader, head of the Council for Sovereignty of Sudan, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, expressed initial approval of the IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority for East African Development) initiative to address the ongoing crisis in the country, the army said: which resulted in an earlier meeting of ambassadors between the heads of state of the organization, in which it was decided to entrust the presidents of South Sudan, Kenya and Djibouti to work on proposals for a way out of the current crisis. 72 hours and send one member of the armed forces and the rebel militia (Rapid Support Force) to Juba (the capital of South Sudan) to agree on the details of the initiative.” These events are taking place at a time when the most dangerous conflict in Sudan has been going on for 13 days with no sign of a resolution being close. Continuous fighting between the army and the Rapid Support Forces has prompted many countries to intensify their efforts to evacuate their citizens or members of diplomatic missions by land, sea and air. Since the clashes began, 512 people have also been killed and 4,193 injured in the fighting between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, and tens of thousands of people have fled the areas of clashes towards other states. In this context, the Rapid Support Forces statement accused the army of attacking them (Thursday) and spreading “false rumors” without referring to the proposal the army said came from the State Development Administration (IGAD). The US State Department said in a statement (Wednesday) that US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat discussed working together to end the fighting. Air and artillery strikes have destroyed hospitals and hampered food distribution in a vast country where a third of its 46 million people were already dependent on humanitarian aid before the conflict broke out. A United Nations report released on Wednesday said that some 50,000 severely malnourished children have interrupted treatment due to the conflict, and operating hospitals are facing shortages of medicines, electricity and water. The update states that bloody clashes erupted in the city of El Geneina, Western Darfur state on Tuesday and Wednesday, leading to looting and killing of civilians, and expresses concern about the escalation of ethnic tensions. The Sudanese Rapid Support Forces said (Thursday) that the army launched air and artillery strikes on its camp in the Kafuri district of Khartoum state. And he added in a statement that he responded to the army attack and inflicted heavy losses on it, noting that the attack took place in the light of a truce … which was allocated to open humanitarian corridors. And (Wednesday), the Sudanese Ministry of Health announced that the death toll from clashes between the army and the Rapid Support Forces had risen to 512 and the number of injured to 4,193 as of Tuesday. A Reuters correspondent reported that some of the heaviest fighting took place in Omdurman, near Khartoum, where the army confronted Rapid Support Force reinforcements from other parts of Sudan. Heavy artillery shelling and air strikes were heard in the evening. In Khartoum, which, along with the neighboring cities of Omdurman and Bahri, is one of Africa’s largest urban areas, the sense of lawlessness is being exacerbated by the spread of robbery gangs.
