Again, Sudan warring factions agree to 7-day ceasefire

A temporary ceasefire has been reached in Sudan as violence between two opposing factions approaches its sixth week, the BBC reports.

Previous peace attempts between Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have usually failed within minutes of beginning.

The new agreement, however, will be implemented via a “ceasefire monitoring mechanism,” according to a US-Saudi statement.

Sudanese officials agreed to restore key services as part of a seven-day humanitarian ceasefire.

Fighting between the two sides has thrown the country into disarray since it began last month, with over a million people believed to have been displaced.

Stocks of food, money, other basics have swiftly depleted, and humanitarian organisations have often complained of being unable to offer adequate assistance in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, where much of the violence has occurred.

Both the regular army and the RSF have been encouraged to allow humanitarian aid distribution, restore key services, and withdraw personnel from hospitals.

The United States and Saudi Arabia, which sponsored the peace negotiations in Jeddah, said the truce would take effect on Monday evening.

In a statement, the US State Department acknowledged prior failed attempts to broker peace in Sudan but said this time was different.

“Unlike previous ceasefires, the agreement reached in Jeddah was signed by the parties and will be supported by a US-Saudi and international-supported ceasefire monitoring mechanism,” it said, without giving more detail.

Taking to Twitter, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken added, “It is past time to silence the guns and allow unhindered humanitarian access.

“I implore both sides to uphold this agreement – the eyes of the world are watching.”

The war broke out in Khartoum on 15 April following days of tension as members of the RSF were redeployed around the country in a move that the army saw as a threat.

There was also a power struggle between Sudan’s regular army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who leads the RSF.

Hundreds of people have been killed in the fighting and the UN has warned of a worsening situation in Africa’s third-largest country, where a huge number of people already relied on aid before the conflict.

It has been two weeks since representatives of the warring factions first gathered in the Saudi capital for peace talks.

On 11 May, both sides signed a commitment intended to lay the groundwork for humanitarian assistance in Sudan.

But earlier this week, UN aid chief Martin Griffiths told the AFP news agency there had been “important and egregious” violations of that agreement, which he added fell short of a ceasefire.

Reports of violence across the country remain rife, with strikes reported on Saturday by eyewitnesses in southern Omdurman and northern Bahri, the two cities that lie across the Nile from Khartoum.

An Omdurman resident recalled her house “shaking” early on Saturday as a result of “heavy artillery fire”.

“It was terrifying, everyone was lying under their beds,” Sanaa Hassan, a 33-year-old living in the al-Salha neighbourhood, told Reuters by phone. “What’s happening is a nightmare.”