The United Nations warned on Friday of “intensified hostilities” ahead in Sudan, despite paramilitary forces endorsing a truce proposal from mediators after more than two years of war with the regular army.<\/p>\n
“There is no sign of de-escalation,” UN human rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“Developments on the ground indicate clear preparations for intensified hostilities, with everything that implies for its long-suffering people.”<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) said they had accepted a truce plan put forward by the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.<\/p>\n
However, the government, backed by the army, has yet to respond to the US-led mediators’ proposal, and explosions rocked the army-controlled capital Khartoum on Friday.<\/p>\n
The conflict, which erupted in April 2023, has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced nearly 12 million and triggered a hunger crisis.<\/p>\n
Less than two weeks ago, the RSF captured the city of El-Fasher, the army’s last major stronghold in Darfur, giving it control of all five state capitals in the vast western region, in addition to parts of the south.<\/p>\n
The army controls most of Sudan’s north, east and centre.<\/p>\n
El-Fasher’s fall was accompanied by reports of mass killings, sexual violence and looting, drawing international condemnation.<\/p>\n
Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab said on Thursday that satellite imagery collected earlier this week showed the RSF had blocked a key civilian escape route from the city.<\/p>\n
Doctors Without Borders warned Friday that the fate of hundreds of thousands who are still trapped in El-Fasher was unknown after satellite images from Yale’s HRL showed suspected mass graves.<\/p>\n
According to the United Nations, about 70,000 people have fled El-Fasher to nearby towns, including Tawila, while the city had previously housed some 260,000.<\/p>\n
“Our main concern is that though we have seen approximately 5,000 people coming out of El-Fasher towards Tawila, we don’t know where the other hundreds of thousands have gone,” newly elected MSF president Javid Abdelmoneim said.<\/p>\n
There are also fears of further atrocities taking place as the conflict shifts into the oil-rich Kordofan region.<\/p>\n
– ‘Living in fear’ –<\/p>\n
In South Kordofan, a medical source told AFP on Friday that the RSF shelled a hospital in besieged Dilling the day before, killing five and injuring five more.<\/p>\n
The Sudan Doctors’ Union said the attack also destroyed the facility’s radiology department.<\/p>\n
Dilling, under RSF siege since June 2023, lies about 150 kilometres (90 miles) southwest of army-controlled El-Obeid, a key crossroads linking Darfur to Khartoum.<\/p>\n
The army broke a two-year siege of El-Obeid in February, but the RSF has regrouped and is mounting a fresh push to seize Sudan’s central corridor.<\/p>\n
A resident of the city, the capital of North Kordofan state, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that people “are living in fear” and “ready to leave at any moment”.<\/p>\n
Much of the wider Kordofan region, meanwhile, faces a worsening humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n
The Rome-based Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said Dilling is now at risk of famine, while South Kordofan’s capital, Kadugli, is already facing one.<\/p>\n
– Khartoum blasts –<\/p>\n
On Friday, explosions were heard in Khartoum and in Atbara, an army-held city around 300 kilometres to the north, witnesses told AFP.<\/p>\n
Khartoum has experienced relative calm since the army regained control earlier this year, but the RSF have continued launching long-range drone attacks on military positions and infrastructure.<\/p>\n
A resident in Omdurman, part of greater Khartoum, told AFP they were woken “around 2:00 am (0000 GMT) by the sound of … explosions” near a military base, while another reported hearing a drone overheard before a blast struck near a power station, causing an outage.<\/p>\n
In Atbara, witnesses said anti-aircraft defences shot down several drones before dawn, sparking fires and explosions in the east of the city.<\/p>\n
There were no immediate reports of casualties and neither the army nor the RSF commented on the blasts.<\/p>\n
Despite the RSF’s announcement on Thursday that it accepted mediators’ plan for a ceasefire, analysts remain sceptical about the prospects for de-escalation.<\/p>\n
Cameron Hudson of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies told AFP the RSF’s announcement “aims to distract from the atrocities… in El-Fasher and portray itself as more responsible than the army”.<\/p>\n
No details of the ceasefire proposal have been made public, but a senior Saudi official told AFP that it calls for a “three-month truce”, during which both sides would be encouraged to hold talks in Jeddah on a permanent peace deal.<\/p>\n
The UAE, one of the mediators, has been accused by the UN of supplying arms to the RSF, allegations it has repeatedly denied.<\/p>\n
The Sudanese army, meanwhile, has received support from fellow mediators Egypt and Saudi Arabia, as well as from Turkey and Iran, according to observers.<\/p>\n
ab-maf\/smw\/dcp<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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