/ Africa
Sudan army, paramilitary agree to UN proposal on ‘humanitarian corridor’
Issued on: 16/04/2023 – 07:00
Modified: 16/04/2023 – 15:22
Sudanese greet army soldiers, loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan on April 16, 2023.01:56
Sudanese greet army soldiers, loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan on April 16, 2023. © AFP
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Sudan’s armed forces announced Sunday they had “agreed to a United Nations proposal to open safe passage for humanitarian cases”, including the evacuation of wounded, for three hours from 1400 GMT.
The heavily-armed Rapid Support Forces also put out a statement that they had agreed to the measure, though they said it would last four hours, and both sides maintained their right to “respond in the event of transgressions” from the other side.
Thousands caught up in fighting
Heavy fighting involving armoured vehicles, truck-mounted machine guns and war planes raged Sunday in Sudan’s capital of Khartoum, the adjoining city of Omdurman and in flashpoints across the country. The rival forces are believed to have tens of thousands of fighters each in the capital alone.
The fighting broke out on Saturday between Sudanese army units loyal to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti, entered a second day.
The military and RSF, which analysts say is 100,000 strong, have been competing for power as political factions negotiate forming a transitional government after a 2021 military coup.
The Sudanese Doctors’ Union reported that at least 56 civilians had been killed and 595 people, including combatants, had been wounded since the fighting erupted on Saturday. The United Nations said three employees of its World Food Programme (WFP) had been killed in clashes in North Darfur.
Scores of military personnel were also killed, it said without giving a specific number due to a lack of first-hand information from many of the hospitals where those casualties were taken.
The group earlier said it recorded deaths at Khartoum’s airport and Omdurman, as well as west of Khartoum in the cities of Nyala, El Obeid and El Fasher.
The RSF claimed to have seized the presidential palace, army chief’s residence, state television station and airports in Khartoum, the northern city of Merowe, El Fasher and West Darfur state. The army rejected those assertions.
The Sudanese air force told people to stay indoors while it conducted what it called an aerial survey of RSF activity, and a holiday was declared in Khartoum state for Sunday, normally a working day in Sudan. Schools, banks and government offices remained closed Sunday.
05:47
Egypt, South Sudan offer to mediate
Amid fears of instability spreading across the region, Egypt and South Sudan on Sunday offered to mediate between the Sudanese army and the RSF, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.
Created in 2013, the RSF emerged from the Janjaweed militia that then-president Omar al-Bashir unleashed against non-Arab ethnic minorities in the western Darfur region a decade earlier, drawing accusations of war crimes.
The African Union’s Peace and Security Council has called an emergency session on Sunday to discuss political and security developments in Sudan.
In a phone call between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir on Sunday, Sudan’s two most influential direct neighbours called on both sides in the power struggle to “choose the voice of reason (and) peaceful dialgoue”, the statement said.
01:16
UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for “an immediate cessation of hostilities” and discussed ways to de-escalate with the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and African Union Commission Chair Moussa Faki Mahamat.
He also spoke with Burhan and Daglo urging them “to return to dialogue.”
The Arab League, following a request by Egypt and Saudi Arabia, is scheduled to hold an urgent meeting Sunday to discuss the situation in Sudan.
In a joint call, the Saudi and United Arab Emirates foreign ministers, along with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, emphasised “the importance of stopping the military escalation”, the Saudi ministry said.
Similar appeals came from the African and Arab regional blocs, the European Union, Russia and Iran.
Trading blame
But in an interview with UAE-based Sky News Arabia, Daglo, who is also known as Hemedti, said, “Burhan the criminal must surrender.”
He denied that RSF had started the fight, after Burhan in an earlier statement said he “was surprised by Rapid Support Forces attacking his home at 9:00 am”.
The army, on its Facebook page, declared Daglo a “wanted criminal” and the RSF a “rebel militia”, saying there “will be no negotiations or talks until the dissolution” of this group.
The military said it carried out air strikes and destroyed two RSF bases in Khartoum. It said the airport and other bases remain under its “full control”, and published a photograph of black smoke billowing from what it said was the RSF headquarters.
RSF published on Twitter a video showing uniformed men which it claimed were “Egyptian soldiers who surrendered with Sudanese military” in Meroe, northern Sudan.
Egypt’s army confirmed “the presence of Egyptian forces” in Sudan for exercises, and said it was following the situation.
Daglo told Sky News Arabia the Egyptians would not be harmed and would be returned home.
Twice delayed
Haggling between Daglo and Burhan has twice delayed the signing of an agreement with civilian factions setting out a roadmap for restoring the democratic transition disrupted by the 2021 coup.
On Saturday, witnesses reported clashes around the state media building in Khartoum’s sister city Omdurman. Others described clashes in the Darfur region and elsewhere.
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Chad, which borders Darfur, said it was closing its frontier, “faced with this troubling situation.”
The military’s civilian interlocutors and ex-prime minister Abdalla Hamdok appealed for a ceasefire, a plea echoed by US ambassador John Godfrey who tweeted that he “woke up to the deeply disturbing sounds of gunfire and fighting”.
Daglo has said the coup was a mistake that failed to bring about change and reinvigorated remnants of Bashir’s regime ousted by the army in 2019 following mass protests.
Burhan, who rose through the ranks under Bashir’s three-decade rule, maintained the coup was necessary to bring more groups into the political process.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
