Renewed air strikes hit Sudan capital as truce enters final hours

The Sudanese army pounded paramilitaries in the capital Khartoum with air strikes Thursday while deadly fighting flared in Darfur, as a fragile US-brokered ceasefire entered its final hours.

Ahead of the expiry of a three-day truce at midnight (2200 GMT), the army said late Wednesday it had agreed to talks in neighbouring South Sudan on extending it “at the initiative of IGAD”, the East African regional bloc.

There have been multiple truce efforts since fighting broke out on April 15 between Sudan’s army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commanded by his deputy turned rival, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. All have failed.

The fighting has continued despite the US-brokered ceasefire that took effect on Tuesday, with warplanes patrolling the skies over the capital’s northern suburbs as fighters on the ground exchanged artillery and heavy machinegun fire, witnesses said.

Burhan agreed on Wednesday to the IGAD proposal for talks on extending the truce by a further 72 hours, the army added. The RSF’s response to the proposal remains unclear.

At least 512 people have been killed and 4,193 wounded in the fighting, according to health ministry figures, although the real death toll is likely much higher.

Despite the truce, the doctors’ union said at least eight civilians had been killed in Khartoum alone on Wednesday.

More than two thirds of hospitals in the country were out of service, the union said Thursday, including 14 hit during the fighting.

Violence beyond Khartoum

Fighting has also flared in the provinces, particularly in the war-torn western region of Darfur.

Witnesses said clashes raged for a second day in the West Darfur capital El Geneina, with pro-democracy medics reporting a doctor was shot dead.

“We are locked up at home and too afraid to go out, so we can’t assess the scale of the damage,” said a resident, who asked to remain anonymous for his safety.

On Wednesday, the United Nations humanitarian agency said the fighting in West Darfur had disrupted food to “an estimated 50,000 acutely malnourished children”.

The violence has trapped many civilians in their homes, where they have endured severe shortages of food, water and electricity.

Those who can afford to have taken the long and risky journey to flee the country.

Egypt said Thursday that at least 14,000 Sudanese refugees had crossed the border into the country since fighting erupted, as well as 2,000 people from 50 other countries.

“End the war”, 50-year-old refugee Ashraf told the warring generals after entering Egypt. “This is your own conflict, not that of the Sudanese people”.

The UN has warned that as many as 270,000 people could flee into Sudan’s impoverished neighbours South Sudan and Chad, and thousands have also fled into Ethiopia.

War crimes suspect escapes

Foreign governments have scrambled get thousands of their citizens out, but some have warned their evacuation efforts are dependent on the relative lull in fighting holding.

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly urged Britons and their relatives in Sudan to use evacuation flights while they are still available.

A Saudi evacuation ship docked in the Red Sea port of Jeddah Thursday carrying 187 Sudan evacuees from 25 countries, including the United States, Russia and Turkey, the Saudi foreign ministry said.

It was the eighth such crossing organised by Saudi Arabia since the start of the fighting and took the total evacuated to the kingdom to 2,544, only 119 of them Saudis, the ministry said.

As lawlessness has gripped Sudan, there have been several jailbreaks, including from the high security Kober prison where top aides of ousted dictator Omar al-Bashir were held.

Among those who have escaped is Ahmed Harun, wanted by the International Criminal Court to face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in Darfur.

Harun’s escape sparked fears of the involvement of Bashir loyalists in the ongoing fighting.

The army said the ousted dictator was not among those who escaped, as he had been moved to a military hospital before fighting erupted.

Daglo’s RSF emerged from the Janjaweed militia, accused of carrying out atrocities against civilians during Bashir’s brutal suppression of ethnic minority rebels in Darfur in the mid-2000s.

Bashir was toppled by the military in April 2019 following civilian mass protests that raised hopes for a transition to democracy.

The two generals seized power together in a 2021 coup, but later fell out, most recently over the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army.