US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken announced on Monday (April 24th) that the army and paramilitaries in conflict in Sudan had agreed to a three-day ceasefire, after ten days of deadly fighting.

"After intense negotiations over the past 48 hours, the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have agreed to implement a nationwide ceasefire from midnight on April 24 (Monday 22 GMT), to last 72 hours," Blinken said in a statement.

The RSF confirmed and announced in a communiqué a "truce dedicated to the opening of humanitarian corridors and the facilitation of the movement of civilians". The army has so far not communicated anything on this subject.

The UN had earlier Monday called for a halt to the fighting to "pull Sudan off the precipice". And if for several days, the two belligerents had already announced to accept pauses in the fighting, each time they accused each other of having broken the truce.

This time, "during this period, the United States expects the military and the RSF to fully and immediately respect this ceasefire," warned the US Secretary of State.

Exodus

Explosions, air raids and gunfire have not stopped since 15 April in Khartoum, pushing thousands of inhabitants of the capital into chaos. Those who cannot escape are trying to survive, deprived of water and electricity, subjected to food shortages and internet and telephone cuts.

On Monday, the doctors' union launched an urgent appeal: "Several districts of Khartoum are bombed, there are civilian deaths and about fifty seriously wounded, all nearby doctors must go there as soon as possible."

The fighting has already left more than 420 people dead and 3,700 wounded, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Violence in the eastern African country, one of the poorest in the world, risks "invading the entire region and beyond," warned UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Despite the departure of many diplomats and foreign citizens, Volker Perthes, the head of the UN mission that has been trying for four years to get the ruling military to transition to democracy, announced that he would remain in Sudan.

Foreign capitals have managed to negotiate crossings with the two belligerents: the army of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, Sudan's de facto ruler, and his deputy turned rival, General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

More than 1,000 EU nationals were evacuated. A "first group" of Chinese, several dozen South Africans and hundreds of nationals of Arab countries also left, by road, sea or air.

About 700 international staff from the UN, NGOs and embassies "have been evacuated to Port Sudan," the UN said. Dozens more aid workers have been evacuated to Chad from Darfur in the west, the area hardest hit by fighting with Khartoum.

Most of the evacuated foreigners are diplomatic personnel, such as those from the United States and the United Kingdom. Many nationals are still waiting for a place in the long convoys of white cars or buses that leave Khartoum continuously.

"Fear for the future"

Experts and humanitarians are now concerned about the fate of the Sudanese. "I fear for their future," Norwegian Ambassador Endre Stiansen admitted.

Both sides accuse each other of attacking prisons to get hundreds of detainees out and looting homes and factories. Clashes broke out near several banks.

In a country where inflation is already in triple digits in normal times, a kilo of rice or a liter of gasoline is now traded at gold prices. But fuel is the key to escape to Egypt, 1,000 kilometers to the north, or to reach Port Sudan and hope to get on a boat.

"As foreigners who can flee, the impact of the violence on an already critical humanitarian situation is worsening," warns the UN, whose agencies, like many humanitarian organizations, have suspended their activities.

Five aid workers have been killed and, according to the doctors' union, nearly three-quarters of hospitals are out of service.

Sudanese have already fled to Egypt and South Sudan, which has 800,000 refugees in Sudan. Among them, women and children are now crossing in the other direction, according to the UN. At least 20,000 Sudanese have taken refuge in Chad, which borders Darfur.

Also on Monday, witnesses told AFP that thousands of people had headed for the Chadian border, fleeing "fighting" in el-Geneina, Darfur.

This region, the poorest in the country, was ravaged in the 2000s by a war ordered by the dictator Omar al-Bashir, deposed in 2019, and led in particular by the Janjaweed militiamen, from which the RSF originated.

The war had been brewing for weeks between the two rival generals, who had allied to oust civilians from power in the 2021 putsch, ending the democratic transition, but who could not agree on the integration of the RSF into regular troops.

Earlier Monday Washington expressed "very serious concerns" about the presence in Sudan of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, which it said brings "where it is present its share of additional deaths and destruction". Press reports quoting officials reported weapons supplied by Wagner to the RSF.

With AFP

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