KHARTOUM: Sudan’s army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has expressed willingness to extend the shaky ceasefire for 72 hours amid intermittent battles with the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on the outskirts of the capital Khartoum.
The army said that General al-Burhan has given initial approval to extend the truce – due to expire late on Thursday – for another 72 hours and send the army envoy to Juba, the South Sudan capital, for talks.
There has yet to be a response from the RSF to the proposed extension to the ceasefire brokered by the US, Saudi Arabia and other regional powers. The army said South Sudan, Kenya and Djibouti presidents have intervened to extend the truce and hold negotiations between the two forces.
Burhan thanks ‘intergovernmental authority’
The army said, “Burhan thanked the ‘intergovernmental authority’ on the development and expressed an initial approval.” The US State Department said that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat had discussed ways to work together to end the fighting in Sudan.
It said that African Union leadership remained “essential in pressing the Sudanese armed forces and the RSF to stop fighting and allow unhindered humanitarian access.”
According to Reuters, some of the heaviest battles were underway in Omdurman, the city on the northern edge of Khartoum, where the army was fighting RSF reinforcements from other regions of Sudan.
The AFP reported warplanes flying over the northern suburbs of Khartoum, drawing heavy anti-aircraft fire from the RSF. In the south, machine-gun fire was reported near one of the homes of RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.
Since fighting erupted in Sudan on 15 April, at least 512 people have been killed in air raids and artillery attacks. Thousands have been injured and hospitals destroyed, with many residents – some on foot – trying to flee the unrest.
A third of the country’s 46 million citizens already relied on humanitarian aid before the violence began.
