In chaotic Sudan, a former dictatorship official wanted for crimes against humanity announced that he had escaped from prison with former collaborators, raising fears of a new conflagration, at a time when the 72-hour ceasefire agreed under the auspices of the United States remains fragile.

Ahmed Haroun was detained in Kober prison, in the capital Khartoum, along with other senior officials of the former regime, in particular Omar al-Bashir, a dictator deposed in 2019 and wanted on an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for "crimes against humanity" and "genocide" in Darfur.

In a speech recorded on Sudanese television on Tuesday night, Ahmed Haroun, also wanted by the ICC, said former officials of Omar al-Bashir's regime were no longer in detention. "We were detained in Kober for nine days ... and we now have the responsibility for our protection" in another place, he said.

Sudan's 72-hour ceasefire that went into effect on Tuesday is only partially respected. Evacuations of foreigners and civilians fleeing the country continued on Wednesday.

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Omar al-Bashir "still in a hospital under police custody"

The fighting for 12 days has pitted the paramilitaries of General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) against the regular army of Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, two generals who carried out the coup in October 2021, who are now engaged in a merciless war for power.

The Sudanese army said Wednesday that Omar al-Bashir, in power for 30 years, was "still in a hospital under the custody of the judicial police". Like Ahmed Haroun, he is wanted for "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity" in Darfur, western Sudan.

A conflict had erupted there in 2003 between Khartoum and members of non-Arab ethnic minorities. It left some 300,000 dead and 2.5 million displaced, according to the UN. The RSF forces include thousands of former Arab militiamen recruited by Omar al-Bashir and suspected of abuses in Darfur.

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Since the beginning of fighting on 15 April between paramilitaries and the regular army, more than 459 people have been killed and more than 4,000 wounded, according to the UN.

"Near the Chadian border, fighting has resumed and there are increasing reports of tribes arming themselves and joining the fighting," the head of the UN mission in Sudan, Volker Perthes, told the Security Council late Tuesday night from Port Sudan, where the United Nations has relocated some of its staff.

He added that "inter-communal clashes" had also broken out in the Blue Nile region, on the southeastern border with Ethiopia. Up to 270,000 people could still be fleeing to neighbouring Chad and South Sudan, according to the UN.

Conflict risks 'pervading the entire region and beyond'

"The most difficult thing is the sound of bombing and fighter jets flying over our house. It terrified the children," said Safa Abu Taher, who landed with his family in Jordan on Tuesday night.

A boat carrying 1,687 civilians fleeing Sudan from more than fifty countries arrived Wednesday in Saudi Arabia, and 245 French and foreign nationals evacuated by plane by French authorities landed Wednesday morning near Paris. Norway evacuated 22 of its nationals by military aircraft.

Those unable to leave Khartoum, a city of more than five million people, are trying to survive, deprived of water and electricity, subjected to food shortages and telephone and internet cuts.

According to the doctors' union, nearly three-quarters of hospitals are out of service. The conflict risks "pervading the entire region and beyond," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned.

For its part, the World Health Organization (WHO) is concerned about a "huge" biological risk after the seizure "by one of the fighting parties" of a "public health laboratory" in Khartoum, which contains pathogens of measles, cholera and polio.

"What we are witnessing is a power struggle between two generals, but it is also an attempt to derail Sudan's democratic transition and bring the country back under the control of the old regime," said Dame Rosalind Marsden, former British ambassador and former European Union special representative for Sudan.

With AFP

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