CAIRO (AP) — Sudan’s warring generals have agreed to send representatives to negotiations, possibly to Saudi Arabia, the country’s top UN official said on Monday, although the two sides clashed in the capital Khartoum despite another three-day extension of a fragile one Armistice.
If the talks come together, they would initially focus on establishing a “stable and reliable” ceasefire, monitored by national and international monitors, Volker Perthes told The Associated Press. However, he warned that there were still challenges in conducting the negotiations.
A series of temporary ceasefires over the past week has eased fighting in only some areas, while fierce fighting has continued elsewhere, driving civilians from their homes and pushing the country further into disaster.
Humanitarian groups have been trying to restore the flow of aid to a country where almost a third of its 46 million people were dependent on international aid even before violence erupted. The UN food agency said Monday it was ending the temporary suspension of its operations in Sudan, put in place after three of its team members were killed in the war-torn Darfur region early in the fighting.
The World Food Program will resume food distributions in four provinces — al-Qadaref, Gezira, Kassala and White Nile — and work in areas where security allows, Executive Director Cindy McCain said. The number of those in need will “increase significantly as the fighting progresses,” she said. “In order to best protect our necessary humanitarian workers and the people of Sudan, the fighting must stop.”
A day earlier, the International Committee of the Red Cross had flown in a planeload of medical supplies to bring some relief to hospitals overwhelmed by the chaos.
The United States conducted its first evacuation of American civilians from Sudan. Guarded by US military drones, a group of Americans made the perilous journey down the Straits from Khartoum to the Red Sea city of Port Sudan. On Monday, a US Navy express transport ship brought 308 evacuees from Port Sudan to the Saudi port of Jeddah, according to Saudi officials.
Direct talks, if they take place, would be the first major sign of progress since fighting broke out on April 15 between the army and a rival paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces. For much of the conflict, army chief General Abdel Fattah Burhan and RSF commander General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo seemed determined to fight to the end.
Their struggle for power has left millions of Sudanese in the midst of gun battles, artillery shelling and airstrikes. Tens of thousands have fled Khartoum and other cities, and more than two-thirds of hospitals in areas of active fighting are out of order as militants loot dwindling supplies.
At least 436 civilians have been killed and more than 1,200 injured since fighting began, according to the latest figures from the Doctors’ Syndicate, which tracks civilian casualties. Up until a week ago, the Sudanese Ministry of Health had counted at least 530 dead, including civilians and combatants, with another 4,500 wounded, but the numbers have not been updated since.
Explosions and gunfire echoed in parts of Khartoum and its neighboring city of Omdurman on Monday, local residents said, hours after both sides pledged to a 72-hour extension to the ceasefire.
Atiya Abdalla Atiya, secretary of the Doctors’ Syndicate, said fighting raged in various areas of Khartoum including the military headquarters, the Republican Palace and the international airport early Monday. There have also been clashes in the upscale neighborhood of Kafouri, he said.
Many hospitals in the capital remained out of order or inaccessible because of the fighting, while others were occupied by the warring factions, particularly the RSF, he said.
The US and Saudi Arabia have led an international push to get the generals to stop fighting and then start deeper negotiations to resolve the crisis.
Speaking from Port Sudan, Perthes said there were still huge challenges in getting the two sides to commit to a real cessation of fighting. One option is to set up a monitoring mechanism that includes Sudanese and foreign monitors, “but that needs to be negotiated,” he said.
Talks of a sustained ceasefire could take place in either Saudi Arabia or South Sudan, he said, adding that the former might be logistically simpler – although each side would need safe passage through the other’s territory. “It’s very difficult in a situation where there’s a lack of trust,” he said.
For the past week, people have been pouring out of Khartoum and other battle-torn urban areas, flocking to where they could find safety.
Thousands camped in Port Sudan hoping to board evacuation ferries. Many families, including young children, have been sleeping outside for days, including hundreds of Syrians and Yemenis who have not been able to get on boats.
“Most people are sitting on their bags,” said one Syrian, Mohamed Amr Mustafa.
More than 70,000 South Sudanese refugees who had been living in Khartoum have fled to neighboring White Nile province and settled in already overcrowded camps, said Mustafa Amr Abarou, a spokesman for the Sudan Refugee Agency. At least 10 trucks a day carrying people fleeing Khartoum continue to arrive, straining the agency’s capabilities, he said. According to the UN, Sudan is home to over 1.3 million refugees, including 800,000 from South Sudan.
The outbreak of fighting capped months of escalating disputes between Burhan and Dagalo as the international community tried to hammer out an agreement to establish civilian rule.
“We all saw the enormous tensions,” Perthes said. “Our efforts to de-escalate have not been successful.” He said he had repeatedly warned that “any single spark” could explode the power struggle.
Perthes warned of a “major humanitarian crisis” as the people of Khartoum ran out of food and fresh water and battled damaged water systems.
A true ceasefire is critical to gaining access to residents who are trapped in their homes or injured, he said. “If we don’t get a stable ceasefire… the humanitarian situation will get worse.”
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Associated Press Author Nick El Hajj in Dubai, United Arab Emirates contributed to this report.