05/08/2023 4:19 pm (act. 05/08/2023 04:19 pm)
Many Sudanese flee the capital Khartoum because of the fighting ©APA/AFP
Despite talks of a humanitarian ceasefire, fighting in Sudan continued unabated on Monday. Eyewitnesses from the capital Khartoum reported battles and air strikes, as well as power outages. Meanwhile, talks between representatives of the warring parties in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, “did not make much headway”, as a Saudi Arabian diplomat reported.
A permanent ceasefire is currently “not on the table”, the diplomat said of the talks. The reason for this is that both sides believed they “could win the fight”. In Sudan, army units under the command of military ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan have been fighting the RSF militia of his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, since mid-April. Several ceasefires agreed since then have been repeatedly broken. According to the non-governmental organization Acled, more than 750 people have died in the fighting and hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced.
Since Saturday, representatives of the parties to the conflict have been advising international mediation in Jeddah. According to the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the objectives of the talks are “an effective temporary halt” to the fighting, facilitating the delivery of aid and restoring basic supplies. In addition, a timetable for further negotiations must be drawn up “in order to achieve a permanent end to hostilities”.