The UN envoy to Sudan, Volker Perthes, has stated that there are no signs that the warring parties in Sudan are ready to negotiate an end to fighting. Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting in New York City, Perthes said that both sides believe they can secure a victory and therefore neither is ready to seriously negotiate. The 72-hour ceasefire was partially holding, but armed clashes were reported in strategic locations in the capital Khartoum and elsewhere. Perthes also denounced the “disregard for the laws and norms of war” among the combatants who have turned Khartoum into a war zone since battles broke out on April 15. The fighting has left hundreds dead, thousands wounded, and seen civilian infrastructure attacked, including hospitals. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the violence and chaos in Sudan as “heartbreaking” and warned that the fighting could spread to other countries in the region.
Despite the ceasefire, fighting could be heard late on Tuesday with gunfire and explosions reported after nightfall in Omdurman, Khartoum’s sister city across the Nile River, where the army used drones to target RSF positions. The army also used drones to try to drive fighters back from a fuel refinery in Bahri, the third city at the confluence of the Blue Nile and White Nile. Al Jazeera’s diplomatic correspondent James Bays, reporting from UN headquarters in New York City, said UN Secretary-General Guterres had painted “a very dismal and pessimistic picture” of the situation on the ground in Sudan, particularly with regard to the conflict spreading. There was already a humanitarian crisis in the country before the current fighting, Bays said, adding that “the situation is so much worse now” amid the shaky ceasefire.
Sudan borders seven countries, all of which have either been involved in conflict or seen serious civil unrest over the past decade. The power struggle in Sudan is not only putting that country’s future at risk, but it is also lighting a fuse that could detonate across borders, causing immense suffering for years, and setting development back by decades. The fighting has created a humanitarian catastrophe with civilians bearing the brunt. Residential areas in Khartoum have been turned into battlefields where gun and tank fire, air attacks and artillery shelling have killed at least 459 people, wounded more than 4,000, cut power and water and limited food distribution in a nation where a third of its 46 million people had already relied on food aid.
Perthes said that the fighting “has created a humanitarian catastrophe with civilians bearing the brunt”. Despite the ceasefire, fighting could be heard late on Tuesday with gunfire and explosions reported after nightfall in Omdurman, Khartoum’s sister city across the Nile River, where the army used drones to target RSF positions. The army also used drones to try to drive fighters back from a fuel refinery in Bahri, the third city at the confluence of the Blue Nile and White Nile.