Fighting in Sudan continues despite cease-fire agreement | DW News

Fighting continued in Sudan late Tuesday, despite an agreement between warring parties to observe a 24-hour cease-fire. Arabic language television news Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera cited top military officer Shams El Din Kabbashi as saying that the army would comply with the truce. But hours after the halt in fighting was due to commence, gunfire could still be heard throughout the capital, Khartoum. "We have not received any indications here that there’s been a halt in the fighting," United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric told a news briefing in New York. Warplanes could still be seen in skies above Khartoum, and several witnesses reported a large army ground force entering the city from the east. The announcement of an agreed cease-fire initially came from the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which is battling the Sudanese army. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of the RSF, said they agreed to a cease-fire to ensure safety of civilians but that the Sudanese armed forces "failed to honor" the agreement. Millions of Sudanese in capital Khartoum and in other major cities have been hiding in their homes, caught in the crossfire as the Sudanese army and the RSF pounded residential areas with artillery and airstrikes and engaged in gun battles in the street.

Earlier Tuesday, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he spoken to leaders of rival armed forces in Sudan and urged an immediate cease-fire, the State Department said. Blinken "expressed his grave concern about the death and injury of so many Sudanese civilians due to the sustained, indiscriminate fighting," State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said. A cease-fire would "permit the delivery of humanitarian assistance to those affected by the fighting, the reunification of Sudanese families, and allow the international community in Khartoum to make sure its presence is secure," Patel said.

The clashes between the rival armed forces in Sudan has killed 270 people and injured 2,600, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of WHO, said he condenms "all loss of life and we stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Sudan." The aid that the WHO distributed to health facilities before the fighting has now been used up, he said. Since fighting is still ongoing, it was impossible to organize further supplies, he added. Hospitals in the capital Khartoum do not have enough material to treat the injured, Tedros said.

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