Airstrikes Hit Khartoum, Envoy Sees Parties Most Open To Talks

KHARTOUM, April 29 (Reuters) – Air and artillery strikes rocked Khartoum on Saturday as Sudan entered the third week of fighting between rival military forces despite a ceasefire, prompting more civilians to flee and fresh warnings of greater instability if the war is not stopped.

As dark smoke billowed over Khartoum, a UN envoy offered a possible glimmer of hope, saying warring parties that have so far shown no signs of compromise are now more open to negotiations – although no date had been set.

Hundreds of people have died and thousands have been injured since April 15, when a long boil Fight for power between the army and the paramilitaries Rapid Support Forces (RSF) burst in conflict.

The fighting has plunged Sudan into civil war, derailing an internationally-backed transition to establish a democratic government and sending tens of thousands of people fleeing to neighboring countries.

“I’m afraid that one day I’ll be asleep and wake up to a bomb falling on my house,” said a man named Khalid, speaking to Reuters from Khartoum, where he stayed because his elderly grandmother and ailing sister would suffer in the long and costly one way trip

“That’s my deepest fear right now. That’s all I think about. That’s why I can’t sleep at night.”

The sides have followed battle carried out during a series of ceasefires brokered by foreign powers, in particular the United States. The last 72-hour truce expires at midnight on Sunday.

RSF said in a statement on Saturday that it had shot down an army fighter jet in Omdurman, across the Nile from Khartoum, and accused the army of violating a ceasefire with an attack there. The military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters could not independently verify the RSF report.

The army previously blamed the RSF for violations and said on Saturday that its forces were continuing to work to end “the rebellion.”

Despite the clashes, the violence was less intense in the capital area than in recent days, residents said.

Residents also reported relative calm in the town of El Geneina, in the western Darfur region, after days of fighting there, allowing people to bury the dead. The Darfur Bar Association said the death toll had reached 200 and thousands had been injured.

The prospects for negotiations between the army and the paramilitaries so far appear bleak.

On Friday, army leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said he would never sit down with the RSF’s “rebel” leader, referring to General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti. The RSF chief, in turn, said that he would speak only after the army ceased hostilities.

However, the UN special representative in Sudan, Volker Perthes, told Reuters that he had recently sensed a change in the attitudes of the parties and that they were more open to negotiations, saying they would accept “some kind of talks”.

“The word ‘negotiations’ or ‘talks’ was not in his speech for the first week or so,” Perthes said.

NOT A ‘LITTLE REBELLION’

Perthes said the parties had designated representatives for the suggested talks for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia or Juba in South Sudan, though he said there was a practical question as to whether they could get there to “really sit down together”.

The immediate task, Perthes said, was to develop a monitoring mechanism for the ceasefires.

“Both have accepted that this war cannot continue.”

At least 528 people have died and 4,599 have been injured, the Health Ministry said. The United Nations has reported a similar death toll, but believes the true number is much higher.

More than 75,000 people have been internally displaced by the fighting, the United Nations reported.

Former Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, speaking at a conference in Nairobi, said the war must end, warning of its ramifications not only on Sudan but on the region.

“This is a huge country, very diverse… I think it will be a nightmare for the world,” he said.

“This is not a war between an army and a small rebellion. It’s almost like two armies: well trained and well armed.”

Andrew Mitchell, Britain’s minister for Africa, warned of “vast areas of disorder, chaos and misery” if fighting continued.

“Those are circumstances, as we’ve seen in other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, where terrorist thrives, so I think there’s a lot of reason to be extremely anxious about that issue,” he said, speaking to reporters at the Nairobi conference.

“The entire international system is looking for ways to stop this fight.”

DARFUR

The fighting has also reignited a two-decade conflict in Darfur with clashes in several cities over the past two weeks.

Residents of the Darfur town of El Geneina said on Saturday that main fighting appeared to have stopped and some people had returned to their homes after a militia attack destroyed the market, hospital and other public buildings in Darfur. the city.

Speaking in a camp in Chad after fleeing Darfur, pregnant at 23 Adam Zamzam She said she was stranded, in labor and alone when armed militias attacked and looted her village near El Geneina. “In our town, armed people came and burned and looted houses and we were forced to flee,” Adam said.

foreign governments They have organized a large evacuation of expatriates. Saudi state broadcaster Alekhbaiya said a passenger ship with 1,982 people on board from 17 countries would arrive at the port of Jeddah on Saturday, adding to another 5,000 that had already arrived.

Reporting by Khaled Abdelaziz and Eltayeb Siddig in Sudan, Aidan Lewis, Alaa Swilam and Sherif Fahmy in Cairo, Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber and Emma Farge in Geneva, Denis Elamu in Juba, Ayenat Mersie in Nairobi Writing by Cynthia Osterman and William Mallard; Edited by Tom Perry and Frances Kerry

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