RIYADH: Sudan’s warring parties have begun a cease-fire on Sunday, announced earlier by mediators Saudi Arabia and the United States in a joint statement, as two months of fighting pushed the African nation into further chaos.
Residents in the capital, Khartoum, and its neighboring city of Omdurman reported “relative calm” in the first hours of the cease-fire Sunday morning, after fierce clashes were reported the previous day.
The three-day truce came ahead of a pledging conference the UN and other nations will organize Monday to raise funds to cover Sudan's humanitarian needs.
The UN says it received less than 16% of the $2.57 billion required to help those in need in Sudan in 2023. Another $470 million more are needed to support refugees in the Horn of Africa region, it said.
The United States and Saudi Arabia, announced the cease-fire agreement Saturday. Both led concerted international diplomatic efforts to stop the war over the past two months.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and United States of America announce the agreement of representatives of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a cease-fire throughout Sudan for a period of 72 hours,” the Saudi foreign ministry statement said late Saturday.
“The parties agreed that during the cease-fire they will refrain from prohibited movements, attacks, use of military aircraft or drones, artillery strikes, reinforcement of positions and resupply of forces, and will refrain from seeking military advantage during the cease-fire,” it added.
The two mediators said should the parties fail to observe the cease-fire, a postponement of ongoing Jeddah dialogue would be considered.
An earlier truce drawn up this month by Saudi Arabia and the US fell through after both sides of the Sudanese clashes accused each other of serious violations of the ceasefire.
Multiple truces have been agreed and broken during the conflict, including after the US issued sanctions on the SAF and RSF leaders following the failure of a previous attempt at the end of May.
On Saturday, air strikes killed civilians and pummeled multiple parts of the Sudanese capital Khartoum, which killed 17 people including five children and destroyed 25 homes.
The fighting capped months of worsening tensions between the rival generals. The conflict turned Khartoum and other urban areas into battlegrounds.
More than 3,000 people lost their lives and over 6,000 others were wounded, according to Health Minister Haitham Mohammed Ibrahim. It forced more than 2.2 million people to flee their homes to safer areas inside Sudan and to neighboring nations.
All of Sudan’s neighbors have their own conflicts and economic problems and the influx of Sudanese refugees adds to the burden. Cash-strapped Egypt has received more than 200,000 Sudanese since the fighting began in mid-April, according to the UN migration agency.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, announced Sunday the allocation of 20 million euros (about $22 million) to help the Egyptian government deal with the influx of Sudanese who fled the war and crossed into Egypt.
“I know this is not enough and you are going to pay much more, but at least, let us contribute a little bit in your support,” Borrell told a joint news conference in Cairo with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.
The cease-fire was the latest in a series of attempted truces brokered by the US and Saudi Arabia, all of which failed to stop the fighting, with the meditators blaming the two warring sides for repeated violations.
The humanitarian situation in the war-ridden country has been worsening. At least 24.7 million people — more than half of the country’s population — need humanitarian assistance. And over 100,000 children are projected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition with medical complications by the end of the year, the World Health Organization warned on Friday.
The UN health agency said it needs $145 million to meet the increasing health needs of those impacted by the conflict inside Sudan and assist those who fled to neighboring countries.
“The scale of this health crisis is unprecedented,” Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean. He added that funds are urgently needed to avert a looming collapse of Sudan’s health care system.
The conflict has wrecked the country’s infrastructure. It also left about 60 percent of health facilities across the country nonfunctional, amid a drastic decrease in medical supplies, which were either destroyed or looted, according to the WHO.
The UN agency said it confirmed at least 46 attacks on health facilities between April 15 and June 8.
(With AP)
