Sudan’s international airport was at the centre of fierce battles between the country’s armed forces and those loyal to a powerful paramilitary leader, with fighting continuing into Tuesday evening even after a proposed 24-hour ceasefire was due to begin.
General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the military government’s vice-president who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, said he had agreed to a one-day armistice after speaking with US secretary of state Antony Blinken “to ensure the safe passage of civilians and the evacuation of the wounded”.
However just as the ceasefire was supposed to be taking effect around 6pm local time, the RSF issued a statement noting “sporadic attacks on our forces” in the capital Khartoum as well as Eastern Nile State. Citizens of Khartoum also reported that they could see and hear fighting in parts of the city, including “very loud explosions” following an air raid.
An army spokesperson said it had been “surprised by the enemy’s talk of a truce”, even as General Shams El Din Kabbashi, a member of Sudan’s sovereign council, told Al-Arabiya television that a temporary ceasefire was planned. The army spokesperson also said that the Sudanese Armed Forces were confident of the “overwhelming defeat” of the RSF.
Fighting has raged since Saturday between the military loyal to de facto president Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF under the command of Dagalo, better known as Hemeti, sparking fears of a broader civil war. At least 180 people have been killed and more than 1,800 wounded since the fighting began, according to the UN.
Khartoum International Airport came under heavy bombardment as the rival forces vied for control. “There’s fighting taking place at the airport,” said a high-ranking Sudanese army official. “There’s no party controlling it — we expel them and then they return,” he added.
Blinken had earlier told reporters in Japan, where he was attending a G7 foreign ministers’ meeting, that “too many civilian lives have already been lost”, adding that a US diplomatic convoy came under fire on Monday. No US personnel were injured in the “reckless” incident, which appeared to be associated with the RSF, according to Blinken.
“We have deep concerns of course about the overall security environment,” Blinken said. “That only underscores the imperative of getting a ceasefire and putting Sudan back on the track that it was on, which was talks and negotiations towards the restoration of a civilian-led government.”
Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said the bloc’s ambassador in Sudan had been “assaulted in his own residency” while a non-governmental Sudanese doctors’ committee said “hospitals in Sudan are under bombardment”.
Volker Perthes, the UN envoy to Sudan who provided the number of deaths and injured, told reporters: “In these current circumstances, under the current conditions, basically no aid delivery can happen.”
As the fighting spreads to other parts of the country, notably the western Darfur region, international and regional pressure to agree a ceasefire has intensified.
The regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development, comprising eight countries in the eastern Horn of Africa, called for “an immediate cessation of hostilities”. However, the closure of many of Sudan’s airports and the fighting in the capital had impeded in-person mediation efforts by leaders from South Sudan, Kenya and Djibouti.
“The current circumstances don’t allow for their presence,” Burhan told Sky News. “There are still clashes between the factions and the airport is under threat. This is not a suitable climate for them to come.”
He added that while he was open to negotiations, his troops would “definitely” defeat Hemeti’s paramilitaries. “Even if there is surrender, there is still negotiation,” he said.
The UN’s Perthes said: “The fighting is between two organised military forces. The two sides who are fighting are not giving the impression that they want mediation for a peace between them right away.”
