KHARTOUM: Gunfire and explosions rocked Sudan’s capital Khartoum Monday, hours before a 1-week humanitarian ceasefire was due to take effect after a string of previous truce agreements were all violated.
On Sunday, the United States and Saudi Arabia announced that the ceasefire agreed between the rival forces would take effect at 9:45 pm (1945 GMT) on Monday to enable humanitarian aid to civilians.
Desperate residents expressed hopes that the new deal will stem the brutal warfare that has shaken the capital and other parts of impoverished Sudan.
Fighting erupted on 15 April between the military, led by the country’s de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces led by Burhan’s former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
On Sunday, the two sides said they would respect the ceasefire, which the United Nations (UN), East African bloc IGAD, and African Union welcomed.
However, witnesses informed that for the 37th consecutive day, the capital of 5 million awoke to the sound of air attacks and anti-aircraft fire as the city endured severe heat and only intermittent water and power supplies.
Mahmoud Salah el-Din, a resident of Khartoum, told AFP that fighter planes are bombing the city. There are no signs that the RSF is preparing to withdraw from the streets.
Nearly 1,000 people have been killed and over a million displaced in the more than 5 weeks of fighting that have plunged the already improvised country deeper into a humanitarian crisis.
Hopes for truce
Despite the previously breached truce deals, war-weary civilians clung to hope that the next ceasefire would hold, allowing desperately required aid to bolster the dwindling supplies of medicine, food, and other vital resources.
For citizens like Khaled Saleh, who lives in the capital of Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman across the Nile, the latest truce deal pledges are a lifeline.
Saleh told AFP that with a ceasefire, running supplies of water can be restored and he will finally be able to see a doctor because he needs to see one regularly for his diabetes and high blood pressure.
Medics have warned again and again that the healthcare system is on the verge of collapse in the capital and elsewhere, especially the western Darfur region that has been affected by decades of deadly conflict.
The joint US-Saudi statement tried to assure that this ceasefire agreement would be respected, saying it was inked by the parties and would be supported by a US-Saudi and international-supported ceasefire agreements monitoring mechanism.
Volker Perthes, the UN’s envoy to Sudan, was due to brief the Security Council on the current situation in the country on Monday evening.
