Sudan: truce extended, but fighting continues, plunging Darfur into chaos

Statements that seem out of touch with reality. On Monday, May 29, Saudi Arabia and the United States announced an agreement for a five-day extension of the truce in Sudan. But at the time of the announcement, Khartoum residents were reporting fighting in the capital, and the guns have never fallen silent since the truce officially began. In Darfur, the situation has worsened, prompting some to call on civilians to take up arms.

Fighting continued in Khartoum before and after the announcement of the extension of the truce, as here, on May 29, 2023. AFP--

Text by: RFI Follow

Advertising

Read more

Abdallah is a member of a resistance committee. On Monday, in the early evening, he described intense fighting that began around 17:30 p.m.: "I hear plane engines, tanks moving. Can you hear the shots? It's a bit far from here, the RSF and the army are fighting each other.

The camp of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and that of General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as "Hemetdi", accused each other, saying they were only responding to each other's assaults. Washington and Riyadh acknowledge the repeated violations of the ceasefire by the belligerents, but do not announce any sanctions.

Ongoing fighting continues to prevent humanitarian organizations from providing sufficient assistance. Since mid-April, the UN estimates that one million Sudanese have already fled their homes and been internally displaced.

In an alert report on Monday, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said it expected two and a half million Sudanese to be acutely hungry in the coming months, with cascading consequences for neighbouring countries.

>> READ ALSO: With the war, the lack of cash complicates the daily life of the Sudanese

Worsening situation in Darfur

While the temporary ceasefire agreements reached in Jeddah have succeeded in reducing tension in some areas, this is not the case in Darfur, a region in the west of the country and once the scene of a deadly war in the 2000s. Sporadic violent clashes have erupted in recent days in various towns in Darfur, creating chaos and desolation and causing residents to flee.

As the military-paramilitary struggle in Sudan enters its seventh week, the situation in Darfur is worsening, worse than in Khartoum, says Toby Harward, head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Sporadic fighting in recent days in Nyala, al-Fasher and el-Geneina has wreaked havoc, again pushing thousands of civilians into their homes or fleeing shelling. In al-Fasher the fighting has even reached Abu Shuk camp, and several villages surrounding it have been looted and burned.

Calls for civilians to take up arms

Faced with this situation, calls to take up arms for civilians are multiplying, risking further complicating the situation. The latest was from Meni Minaoui, the governor of Darfur. But the residents of al-Fasher did not wait for this call to erect roadblocks or dig trenches at the entrance to their town.

In the absence of communications with these areas of Darfur, little information ultimately filters. Testimonies, collected by humanitarians, indicate that the attacking militias burn homes, markets, pharmacies and administrations.

The fighting plunges Darfur into a very delicate situation, preventing, recalls the UN, the distribution of humanitarian aid. Of Sudan's 45 million people, 25 million now depend on humanitarian aid, the United Nations said.

>> Read also: Sudan: pregnant women particularly affected by the conflict

Newsletter Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

Read on on the same topics:

• Sudan
• Abdel Fattah al-Burhan