The US and Saudi Arabia urged Sudan’s warring parties to extend a fragile cease-fire that was set to expire Monday, after weeks of fighting in the African country’s capital and elsewhere.
The Sudanese army and a rival paramilitary force, which have been fighting for control of Sudan since mid-April, agreed last week to a weeklong truce negotiated by the US and Saudi Arabia. The cease-fire, like others before it, did not, however, end the fighting in Khartoum and elsewhere in the country.
The United States and Saudi Arabia issued a joint statement early Sunday calling for an extension of the present cease-fire, which expires at 9:45 p.m. local time Monday.
“While imperfect, an extension nonetheless will facilitate the delivery of urgently needed humanitarian assistance to the Sudanese people,” the statement said.
The statement also urged Sudan’s military government and the rival Rapid Support Forces to continue negotiations to reach an agreement on extending the cease-fire.
The fighting broke out in mid-April between the military and the powerful RSF. Both military chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and RSF leader Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo led the 2021 coup that removed the Western-backed government of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.
The conflict has killed hundreds of people, wounded thousands and pushed the country to near collapse. It has forced nearly 1.4 million people out of their homes to safer areas inside Sudan, or to neighboring nations, according to the U.N. migration agency.
Residents reported minor fights on Sunday in portions of Omdurman, the capital’s neighboring city, when army planes were seen flying overhead. Fighting was also reported in al-Fasher, North Darfur’s provincial capital.
In a second statement, the United States and Saudi Arabia accused both the military and the RSF of violating the cease-fire, claiming that such violations “significantly impeded delivery of humanitarian assistance and restoration of essential services.”
The statement highlighted military airstrikes, including one that purportedly killed at least two people in Khartoum on Saturday. The RSF also continued to occupy civilian households, private enterprises, and public buildings, as well as loot some of them.
“Both parties have told facilitators their goal is de-escalation to facilitate humanitarian assistance and essential repairs, yet both parties are posturing for further escalation,” the statement said.
The conflict has come to a stalemate as neither side has been able to deliver a decisive blow to the other after six weeks of fighting.
In the first two weeks of the war, army airstrikes targeted RSF camps in and outside the capital, crippling the paramilitary force’s bases. That forced the RSF to deploy in densely populated areas, where they seized people’s houses and other property, and are using them as cover against the military’s airstrikes.
