Sudan’s warring generals agree to 24-hour ceasefire after US pressure

KHARTOUM – Sudan’s warring generals agreed to a 24-hour ceasefire from Tuesday evening, following calls by United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken for them to stop fighting to allow humanitarian aid to civilians caught in the conflict.

The ceasefire will start at 6pm (12am Singapore time) and will not extend beyond the agreed 24 hours, Army General Shams El Din Kabbashi, a member of Sudan’s ruling military council, said on Al Arabiya TV.

Mr Blinken held separate calls with the army chief and the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), whose power struggle

has killed at least 185 people

and derailed an internationally backed deal for a shift to civilian government after decades of autocracy and military rule.

Gunfire echoed across Sudan’s capital for a fourth day on Tuesday, accompanied by the sound of warplanes and explosions. Residents in Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman, on the other side of the Nile, also reported air strikes that shook buildings, and anti-aircraft fire.

Mr Blinken said a US diplomatic convoy came under fire on Monday in an apparent attack by fighters associated with the RSF, adding that all in the convoy were safe. He called the incident “reckless” and said any attacks or threats to US diplomats were unacceptable.

Mr Blinken, speaking in Japan, said he spoke by phone to the RSF’s leader, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, and Sudan’s army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, appealing for a 24-hour ceasefire “to allow the Sudanese to be safely reunited with families” and to provide them with relief.

Fighting between Sudan’s army and the RSF

that erupted last Saturday

has killed at least 185 people and injured more than 1,800, United Nations envoy Volker Perthes said on Monday.

Gen Dagalo, whose whereabouts have not been disclosed since fighting began, said he “discussed pressing issues” with Mr Blinken during their call, and that more talks were planned.

In posts on Twitter, he said the RSF approved a 24-hour armistice. The RSF also issued a statement saying it was waging a continuing battle to restore “the rights of our people”.

Power and water cuts

The clashes in Khartoum and its sister cities of Omdurman and Bahri

are the worst in decades and risk tearing Sudan between two military factions that have shared power during a rocky political transition.

Gen Burhan has headed Sudan’s ruling council since former strongman Omar Hassan al-Bashir was ousted in 2019. He shared power with civilians before leading a 2021 coup. Gen Dagalo had been his deputy.

The factions both claim to have made gains amid air strikes and fighting across Khartoum, Omdurman and Bahri.

The violence has caused power and water cuts in some areas and left many residents stranded in the final days of Ramadan, when Muslims fast during daylight hours.

Health services have been widely disrupted, and most major hospitals have gone out of service, according to a doctors’ group monitoring the conflict.

“Our nerves are frayed,” said one woman living near a state broadcasting building in Omdurman that has been fought over. “This is the hardest thing a person can go through.”

The already precarious humanitarian situation has deteriorated, and UN officials

say many aid programmes have been suspended.

Fighting in Darfur has raised the spectre of renewed conflict in a region that from 2003 was plagued by years of bloody warfare.

Mr Perthes, the UN envoy to Sudan, said on Monday the two sides showed no signs of being willing to negotiate.

“The two sides who are fighting are not giving the impression that they want mediation for a peace between them right away,” he told reporters by video link from Khartoum.

Army pardon offer

The violence could destabilise a volatile region and play into competition for influence there between Russia and the US, and among regional powers that have courted different actors in Sudan.

Egypt is the most important backer of Sudan’s armed forces, while Gen Dagalo has cultivated ties with foreign powers, including the United Arab Emirates and Russia.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said late on Monday that he was in regular contact with the army and the RSF to “encourage them to accept a ceasefire and spare the blood of the Sudanese people”. The army’s media office said Gen Burhan would pardon RSF officers and soldiers who surrender and “lay down their arms”. Those that do would be absorbed into the armed forces, he said.

The eruption of fighting followed rising tensions over the RSF’s integration into the military under a civilian transition plan.

While the army is larger and has air power, the RSF is widely deployed in neighbourhoods of Khartoum and other cities, giving neither side the edge for a quick victory.

In a second security incident involving diplomats, the European Union’s ambassador to Sudan was assaulted in his residence on Monday, the EU’s foreign policy chief said, without giving details. REUTERS