Conflicts & War

Fighting resumes in Sudan after failed Eid ceasefire amid int’l evacuations

Khartoum, Apr 22 (EFE).- Fighting between two rivals in a military power struggle in Sudan resumed Saturday in the capital, Khartoum, after both sides ignored a UN-proposed ceasefire a day earlier.

Six people died when a shell hit their apartment building outside Khartoum, Sudan Red Crescent spokesman Osama Abu Bakr told EFE.

The Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group on Friday had agreed to a three-day ceasefire proposed by the UN to coincide with Eid al-Fitr and the end of the holy month of Ramadan, but like the previous four that have been declared since the fighting broke out on Saturday, it was ignored.

Witnesses told EFE that clashes were ongoing in several parts of Khartoum on Saturday.

The Sudanese military leader, Abdelfatah al Burhan, said that some countries’ evacuations of their citizens, such as the United States, France, China and the United Kingdom, would begin “in the next few hours”. Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Japan’s operations were already underway.

The RSF announced in a statement Friday night that it was prepared to partially open all of the country’s airports to allow foreign governments to extract their citizens.

Khartoum International Airport is still closed and intense clashes were ongoing between the warring parties in the vicinity.

At least 413 people have been killed and 3,551 injured in Sudan since the outbreak of the conflict, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

The fighting that began on April 15 between the Sudanese Army and the RSF followed weeks of tension over the reform of the security forces during negotiations to form a new transitional government.

Both forces were behind the coup that toppled Sudan’s transitional government in October 2021. EFE

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