Fighting rages in Sudan ahead of truce expiration

AFP | Khartoum

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com    

Gunshots and artillery fire rocked the Sudanese capital yesterday, the last day of a frequently breached ceasefire, as calls to arms stoked fears the six-week war will intensify.

Residents said they could hear street battles in northern Khartoum, as well as artillery fire in the south of the capital of over five million people which has been turned into a deadly war zone.

Since the truce began a week ago, frightened residents have ventured out to try and get food or water, the costs of which have doubled since the start of the war.

But thousands of families continue to shelter in place, rationing water and electricity while trying desperately to avoid stray gunfire.

In Darfur, on the western border with Chad, continued fighting “blatantly disregards ceasefire commitments”, according to Toby Harward, of the United Nations refugee agency.

“Intermittent fighting between Sudanese armed forces and Rapid Support Forces in El Fasher, North Darfur over the last few days” has seen civilians killed, homes looted and tens of thousands newly displaced in the already war-ravaged region, Harward said.

Newborns dead in hospital

The persistent fighting has impeded the delivery of essential humanitarian aid, upon which 25 million people -- over half the population -- now rely to survive, according to the UN.

A week ago, representatives of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary RSF, pledged to pause the incessant air strikes, artillery fire and street battles in order to allow in much-needed aid and civilians to flee.

But by the seventh day of the truce -- due to expire at 9:45 pm (1945 GMT) yesterday -- no humanitarian corridors had been secured, and aid had only trickled in to replenish the few hospitals that are still functioning in the capital.

In East Darfur state, more than 30 infants have died in a single hospital since fighting began, including “six newborn babies who reportedly died in one week alone due to problems including lack of oxygen amid electricity blackouts”, according to the World Health Organisation.