The United Nations estimates that more than 843,000 Sudanese have been displaced by the fighting inside Sudan, which has entered its sixth week. Those who have escaped the country and those still inside describe dire conditions, as aid groups say the number of internally displaced is likely to become much higher. Henry Wilkins reports from Koufroun, Chad.
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An al-Shabab leader appears to have survived the latest United States military airstrike in Somalia, according to a spokesperson for U.S. Africa Command.

“Following a comprehensive battle damage assessment, U.S.-AFRICOM assesses that one al-Shabab leader was injured as a result of the operation,” Lt. Commander Timothy S. Pietrack, an AFRICOM spokesman, told VOA on Tuesday.

Pietrack did not disclose the name of the al-Shabab leader injured in the May 20 strike, which took place in Jilib, an al-Shabab stronghold some 385 kilometers southwest of Mogadishu.

“The command’s initial assessment is that no civilians were injured or killed,” the statement said.

The strike came as Mahad Salad, director of Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency, was in Washington and New York to meet with U.S. officials from the Pentagon, CIA and FBI, according to a source familiar with the visit who did not want to be identified as they are not authorized to speak to the media.

The talks focused on security and counterterrorism cooperation between the two countries, the source added. 
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Festus Nyoni picked out a few items in a supermarket in Zimbabwe’s capital, looked at the prices and knew she was in the wrong place. 

She abandoned her shopping cart and headed for a nearby street jammed with traders offering bargains in U.S. dollars. From the trunk of a car, she picked toiletries, rice and soups. For her two children, a young street vendor dodged traffic to offer her a box of candy. 

“I can’t keep up with those Zim dollar prices in the supermarket — it’s insane,” Nyoni said, referring to the local currency. “For the price of one in the supermarket, I am getting two soaps in the street.” 

A yearslong currency crisis that forced the 2009 adoption of the U.S. dollar — one of the world’s most reliable assets — is changing shopper preferences in this southern African nation of 15 million. Many people are shunning brick-and-mortar stores, where prices must be charged in local currency and rise frequently. 

On the street, costs are more stable because shoppers pay exclusively in U.S. dollars. 

With greenbacks scarce at banks, many people and businesses get them on the black market, making the official exchange rate — 1,000 Zimbabwe dollars to one U.S. dollar — that retailers are required to use artificially low. It’s double that on the street, so to break even, stores are forced to make their products more expensive. 

“Zimbabwe dollar inflation on the black market is on a rampage, so retailers have to constantly change their prices,” economist Prosper Chitambara said. 

Other countries like Lebanon and Ecuador also have turned to using the U.S. dollar to beat back inflation and other economic woes, with mixed success. Facing Lebanon’s worst financial crisis in modern history, many stores and restaurants there are demanding dollars. 

Similarly, manufacturers and suppliers are now pushing for payment in U.S. dollars from stores that are forced to sell the same products using the freefalling Zimbabwe dollar, said Denford Mutashu, president of the Retailers Association of Zimbabwe. 

“It’s currently impossible to purchase goods in U.S. dollars and sell in local currency and recover the money spent,” said Mutashu, adding that manufacturers are increasingly preferring informal traders over formal retailers to avoid using local currency. 

“The informal market is ready to pay in U.S. dollars. The Zimbabwe dollar is being squeezed out,” Mutashu said. 

Zimbabwe’s economy is inching toward “full dollarization,” with the local currency facing collapse, local investment firm Inter-Horizon Securities said. It slumped by 34% in April alone. 

Street traders in cars, on bicycles or on foot clog sidewalks, roads and parking spaces. They sell items ranging from groceries to cosmetics, brooms, dog chains, car parts and medicines. 

Next to the entrance of a fashion shop, street traders displayed new and secondhand clothing at knockdown prices. Some landlords have divided large buildings into tiny rooms where groceries are sold. 

Many young people, including college graduates, end up becoming street vendors, said Wadzai Mangoma, director of the lobbying group Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation. 

“Our prices are not subject to the artificially low official exchange rate, so we have taken over the supply of basic commodities,” Mangoma said. “However, competition is also very high because the majority are turning to informal trade for employment.” 

To stand out, street traders are becoming creative and turning on the charm, a far cry from their usual brazen approach. 

One recent day, a driver at a busy intersection gestured about a lack of money to buy anything but got a surprise. 

“Take it. It’s free today,” said a street trader, handing him a comb. 

Free gifts, kneeling as if in prayer, cleaning drivers’ windows and polite greetings are all part of the act. A man sang and danced while selling electronics to people stuck in a traffic jam. 

Street traders are part of the culture in much of Africa, with more than two-thirds of people in Zimbabwe employed in the informal sector, the African Development Bank said. 

It’s a big change: Locals largely worked in formal industries after independence from white minority rule in 1980. 

Following early successes, years of corruption, seizures of white-owned farms, frequent currency policy changes, electricity shortages and crippling debt have decimated the mineral-rich country’s once-flourishing economy. The government says Western sanctions over human rights allegations have made things worse. 

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube on May 11 announced measures to stabilize the currency and attributed the economic instability to “skewed preference for the U.S. dollar as a savings currency.” The measures include removing restrictions to allow individuals with foreign currency to import basic goods duty free. 

The government also launched gold coins as legal tender last year and rolled out a gold-backed digital currency in early May. 

But some analysts are not optimistic. 

“I don’t expect a significant impact,” said Chitambara, the economist. “The government should liberalize the exchange rate and reduce supply of Zim dollars.” 

Until a solution is found, Nyoni, the shopper, will avoid brick-and-mortar stores. 

“It makes better sense to buy from the streets,” she said. “At least there is no guessing of prices each time I go shopping.” 
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A weeklong cease-fire in Sudan went into effect late Monday as witnesses in the capital, Khartoum, reported some clashes. 

Sudan’s rival sides, the Sudan Armed Forces of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Security Forces led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, can renew the agreement after its initial seven-day period.    

While fighting has continued during previous cease-fires, this one was agreed upon during formal negotiations in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and includes a monitoring mechanism made up of three representatives each from the Saudis, Americans and the two Sudanese forces.   

The United Nation’s top envoy in Sudan on Monday welcomed the U.S.-Saudi brokered cease-fire.    

“This is a welcome development, though the fighting and troop movements have continued even today, despite the commitment of both sides not to pursue military advantage before the cease-fire takes effect,” Volker Perthes told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council.       

Perthes traveled to New York from Port Sudan. The United Nations has temporarily moved some of its staff and operations to that Red Sea city after intense fighting erupted in Khartoum on April 15.        

“I call on both [sides] to end the fighting and to return to dialogue in the interest of Sudan and its people,” Perthes said. “Lives and infrastructure have been destroyed. The growing ethnicization of the conflict risks to expand and prolong it, with implications for the region.”      

Perthes said five weeks of fighting has killed more than 700 people, including 190 children. Another 6,000 people have been injured. Over a million people are internally displaced, and 250,000 have fled the country.     

In addition to airstrikes and fighting in the capital, West Darfur has seen a resumption of large-scale intercommunal violence. Perthes said there are signs of tribal mobilization in the South Kordofan and Blue Nile regions, as well.       

He stressed that the temporary truce is not the ultimate goal but an instrument to go forward toward talks about a permanent cessation of hostilities and a new Sudanese-owned-and-led political process.       

“I think that both parties over the last five weeks have learned that they will not achieve an easy military victory,” Perthes told reporters. “That even if they were to achieve a victory over the other side after a long struggle, that could be at the expense of losing the country, and that there is no alternative if they want to preserve their country than ceasing the fire and going back to some form of political process.”      

Regional efforts      

The African Union commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security briefed Monday’s meeting by video link. He said the regional group is working “relentlessly” to bring an end to the conflict.    

“Our conviction is that only a well-coordinated, collective action will give chance to the success of international action of peace and stability in Sudan,” said Bankole Adeoye.   

“Separate, competing or rival actions will further complicate and undermine the search for a peaceful resolution of the crisis.”     

He said the AU has developed a comprehensive de-escalation plan for resolving the conflict — focusing on an immediate, unconditional, permanent cease-fire; humanitarian action; accountability for actions taken by the warring parties; support to neighboring countries impacted by the crisis; and the resumption of an inclusive political process aimed at the return to a democratic civilian-led government.      

Adeoye said African leaders will meet later this week at the AU Peace and Security Council to endorse the de-escalation plan.     

The executive secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the East African regional bloc, also briefed the Security Council by video. Workneh Gebeyehu said the chance of success is higher if efforts are coordinated.      

“We all have one purpose and goal in Sudan: to silence the guns and resume the inclusive Sudanese-led, Sudanese-owned political process that will pave way towards the formation of a civilian-led transitional government,” he said.    

Security Council members echoed support for the new cease-fire and a return to a civilian-led democratic transition. Members also called on the SAF and RSF to immediately stop fighting, protect civilians and allow safe access for humanitarians.     

The United Nations estimates that 15 million people needed assistance before the fighting erupted, and that has risen to 18 million. Last week, the organization appealed for $2.6 billion to help cope with growing needs. 

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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The United Nations Children’s Fund recently said Sudan’s war has displaced at least 450,000 children from their homes, with tens of thousands fleeing into neighboring countries. Aid groups say these refugee children are being deprived of education, without which they are at higher risk for exploitation, child marriage and recruitment into armed groups. Henry Wilkins has more on the story from Borota, Chad, near the border with Sudan.
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The United Nation’s top envoy in Sudan on Monday welcomed a U.S.-Saudi brokered cease-fire that was about to go into effect, even as he warned that the Sudan conflict shows no sign of slowing down.

“This is a welcome development, though the fighting and troop movements have continued even today, despite the commitment of both sides not to pursue military advantage before the cease-fire takes effect,” Volker Perthes told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

Perthes traveled to New York from Port Sudan. The United Nations has temporarily moved some of its staff and operations to that Red Sea city after intense fighting erupted in the capital, Khartoum, on April 15.

The cease-fire, signed by the rival Sudan Armed Forces of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Security Forces led by General Mohamed Dagalo, is to go into effect at 9:45 p.m. local time on Monday and last for an initial period of seven days, which the parties can renew.

While fighting has continued during previous cease-fires, this one was agreed upon during formal negotiations in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and will include a monitoring mechanism made up of three representatives each from the Saudis, Americans and the two Sudanese forces.

“I call on both [sides] to end the fighting and to return to dialogue in the interest of Sudan and its people,” Perthes said. “Lives and infrastructure have been destroyed. The growing ethnicization of the conflict risks to expand and prolong it, with implications for the region.”

Perthes said five weeks of fighting has killed more than 700 people, including 190 children. Another 6,000 people have been injured. Over a million people are internally displaced, and 250,000 have fled the country.

In addition to airstrikes and fighting in the capital, West Darfur has seen a resumption of large-scale intercommunal violence. Perthes said there are signs of tribal mobilization in the South Kordofan and Blue Nile regions, as well.

He stressed that the temporary truce is not the ultimate goal but an instrument to go forward toward talks about a permanent cessation of hostilities and a new Sudanese-owned-and-led political process.

“I think that both parties over the last five weeks have learned that they will not achieve an easy military victory,” Perthes told reporters. “That even if they were to achieve a victory over the other side after a long struggle, that could be at the expense of losing the country, and that there is no alternative if they want to preserve their country than ceasing the fire and going back to some form of political process.”

Regional efforts

The African Union commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security briefed Monday’s meeting by video link. He said the regional group is working “relentlessly” to bring an end to the conflict.

“Our conviction is that only a well-coordinated, collective action will give chance to the success of international action of peace and stability in Sudan,” said Bankole Adeoye.

“Separate, competing or rival actions will further complicate and undermine the search for a peaceful resolution of the crisis.”

He said the AU has developed a comprehensive de-escalation plan for resolving the conflict — focusing on an immediate, unconditional, permanent cease-fire; humanitarian action; accountability for actions taken by the warring parties; support to neighboring countries impacted by the crisis; and the resumption of an inclusive political process aimed at the return to a democratic civilian-led government.

Adeoye said African leaders will meet later this week at the AU Peace and Security Council to endorse the de-escalation plan.

The executive secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the East African regional bloc, also briefed the Security Council by video. Workneh Gebeyehu said the chance of success is higher if efforts are coordinated.

“We all have one purpose and goal in Sudan: to silence the guns and resume the inclusive Sudanese-led, Sudanese-owned political process that will pave way towards the formation of a civilian-led transitional government,” he said.

Security Council members echoed support for the new cease-fire and a return to a civilian-led democratic transition. Members also called on the SAF and RSF to immediately stop fighting, protect civilians and allow safe access for humanitarians.

The United Nations estimates that 15 million people needed assistance before the fighting erupted, and that has risen to 18 million. Last week, the organization appealed for $2.6 billion to help cope with growing needs.
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Though fighting has continued through previous cease-fires, this is the first truce to be formally agreed to following negotiations
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A delegation of six African leaders set to hold talks with Kyiv and Moscow aim to “initiate a peace process,” but also broach the thorny issue of how a heavily sanctioned Russia can be paid for the fertilizer exports Africa desperately needs, a key mediator who helped broker the talks said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Jean-Yves Ollivier, an international negotiator who has been working for six months to put the talks together, said the African leaders would also discuss the related issue of easing the passage of more grain shipments out of Ukraine amid the war and the possibility of more prisoner swaps when they travel to both countries on what they’ve characterized as a peace mission.

The talks will likely be next month, Ollivier said.

He arrived in Moscow on Sunday and will also go to Kyiv for meetings with high-level officials to work out “logistics” for the upcoming talks. For one, the six African presidents would likely have to travel to Kyiv by night train from Poland amid the fighting, he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have both agreed to separately host the delegation of presidents from South Africa, Senegal, Egypt, Republic of Congo, Uganda and Zambia.

The talks also have the approval of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, the African Union and China, Ollivier said in a video call with the AP on Friday.

Neither side in the war appears ready to stop fighting, though.

The talks were announced last week by President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa just as Russia launched an intense air attack on Kyiv. On Sunday, Russia claimed to have taken the key eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut after fierce fighting, a claim denied by Ukraine.

“We are not dreamers,” Ollivier said on the chances the African leaders will achieve an immediate breakthrough with regard to stopping the 15-month conflict. “Unless something happens, I don’t think we are going to finish our first mission with a ceasefire.”

The aim was to make a start, said Ollivier, a 78-year-old Frenchman who brought opposing sides together in high-stakes negotiations in the late 1980s that helped end apartheid in South Africa.

“It starts with signs. It starts with dialogue. And this is what we are going to try to do,” Ollivier said. “No guarantee that we are going to succeed but, for the time being, Russia and Ukraine have accepted … a delegation coming specifically to their countries to talk about peace.”

A key starting point for Africa is grain and fertilizers.

The war has severely restricted the export of grain from Ukraine and fertilizers from Russia, exacerbating global food insecurity and hunger. Africa has been one of the hardest-hit continents. Last week, Russia agreed to a two-month extension of a deal brokered by Turkey and the U.N. that allows Ukraine to ship grain through the Black Sea and out to the world, and the six African presidents would like to see that extended further.

But they also need to broach ways of making it easier for African nations to receive shipments and pay Russia for fertilizers, Ollivier said. Russian fertilizer is not under international sanctions but the U.S. and some Western nations have targeted Russian cargo ships for sanctions. Russia’s access to the SWIFT global financial transaction system also has been restricted by the sanctions, leaving African nations struggling to order and pay for critical fertilizers.

“We will need to have a window whereby SWIFT will be authorized for this specific point,” Ollivier said. “That will be on the table and we hope that in that case we will gain the support of the Russians for the grains from Ukraine, and we will gain the support of the Ukrainians to find payments and shipments possible for the Russian fertilizer.”

The African mission is not the only mediation effort. China offered its own peace proposal in February and a Chinese envoy has been in discussions with Ukrainian officials. But China’s plan has largely been dismissed by Ukraine’s Western allies and is clouded by Beijing’s political support for Moscow.

Ukraine and Russia are far apart in terms of any agreements that might form the base of a peace deal.

The African delegation still had a wide cross-section of backing, Ollivier said, after China also “came to us and offered support” on the basis it would be a “parallel effort” to Beijing’s plan.

“More support, more weight will be put on the negotiation (with Moscow and Kyiv),” said Ollivier, the founding chairman of the London-based Brazzaville Foundation, an organization that deals with conflict resolution. “If one party says no, they will consider to who they are saying no. Are they saying no only to Jean-Yves Ollivier? To the Brazzaville Foundation? To the six (African) heads of state?”

“Or are they saying no to the United Nations, or to the Chinese, or to the Americans. To the British? To the European Union?”
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Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) pledged Sunday to adhere to a newly agreed, short-term cease-fire with the Sudanese army.

“We affirm our full commitment to the cease-fire … to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid, open passages for civilians and provide everything that would alleviate the suffering of our people,” the paramilitary group said in a statement.

“Today we are more insistent and determined … to break this vicious circle that has been controlling the fate of our people unjustly and tyrannically,” it said.

The Sudanese army and RSF signed a weeklong cease-fire deal Saturday after talks in the Saudi city of Jeddah. The halt in fighting is set to take effect Monday evening with an internationally supported monitoring mechanism.

Several previous attempts to broker a sustained truce have failed, with both sides accusing the other of violating it.

The new agreement states, “Both parties have conveyed to the Saudi and U.S. facilitators their commitment not to seek military advantage during the 48-hour notification period after signing the agreement and prior to the start of the cease-fire.”

A U.S.-Saudi statement said, “It is well known that the parties have previously announced cease-fires that have not been observed. Unlike previous cease-fires, the agreement reached in Jeddah was signed by the parties and will be supported by a U.S.-Saudi and international-supported cease-fire monitoring mechanism.”

The Monitoring and Coordination Committee is to be made up of three representatives each from the U.S. and Saudi Arabia and three representatives from each party.

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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Scottish-Ghanaian architect Lesley Lokko is giving a platform to voices that have long been silenced at this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, which opens Saturday, the first ever curated by an African, featuring a preponderance of work by Africans and the African diaspora. 

The 18th architectural Biennale, titled “The Laboratory of the Future,” explores decolonization and decarbonization, topics about which Africans have much to say, Lokko said, citing the long exploitation of the continent for both human and environmental resources. 

“The Black body was Europe’s first unit of energy,” Lokko told The Associated Press this week. “We have had a relationship to resources since time immemorial. We operate at a place where resources are not stable. They are also often fragile. They’re often exploited. Our relationship to them is exploitative.” 

Lokko tapped global stars like David Adjaye and Theaster Gates among 89 participants in the main show — more than half of them from Africa or the African diaspora. To reduce the Biennale’s carbon footprint, Lokko encouraged the participating architects, artists and designers to be as “paper-thin” as possible with their exhibits, resulting in more drawings, film and projections as well as the reuse of materials from last year’s contemporary art Biennale. 

“This exhibition is a way of showing that this work, this imagination, this creativity, has been around for a very, very long time,” Lokko said. “It’s just that it hasn’t found quite the right space, in the same way.” 

It is a fair question why an African-centric exhibition has been so long in coming to such a high-profile, international platform like Venice. 

Okwui Enwezor, the late Nigerian art critic and museum director, was the first African to head the Venice Biennale contemporary art fair, which alternates years with the architectural show, in 2015. Lokko was the first Biennale curator selected by President Roberto Cicutto, who was appointed in 2020 during the global push for inclusion ignited by the killing of George Floyd in the United States. 

“This is more for us than for them,” Cicutto said, “to see the production, hear the voices we have heard too little, or heard in the way we wanted to.” 

Impediments in the West to inclusive events with a focus on the global south were evident in the refusal by the Italian embassy in Ghana to approve visas for three of Lokko’s collaborators, which Lokko decried this week as “an old and familiar tale.” 

A refocusing of the North-South relationship is suggested in the main pavilion’s facade: a corrugated metal roof cut into deconstructed images of the Venetian winged lion. The material is ubiquitous in Africa and other developing regions, and here offers free shade. The lion, native to Africa and for centuries a symbol of Venice, serves as a reminder of how deeply cultural appropriation runs. 

“I don’t see any lions around here,’’ Lokko said wryly. 

Inside, Adjaye’s studio exhibits architectural models created “outside the dominant canon,” like the Thabo Mbeki Presidential Library in South Africa that takes inspiration from pre-colonial buildings. Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama explores the colonial exploitation in the installation, “Parliament of Ghosts.” 

And Olalekan Jeyifous, a Brooklyn-based Nigerian national, creates a sprawling retro-futuristic narrative around the fictional formation of a united African Conservation Effort, something he imagines would have been constructed a decade after African decolonization in an alternative 1972. 

“It’s never utopia/dystopia. Such binary Western terms, that I’m really interested in operating outside of,” said Jeyifous, who won the Silver Lion for a promising young participant. “It’s not just: We’ve solved all the problems now. Everything’s fantastic. It’s never that simple.” 

The Golden Lion for the best participant in the main show, went to Alessandro Petti and Sandi Hilal for their exhibit DAAR, exploring the legacy and reuse of fascist colonial architecture. 

More than in previous editions, the 64 national participants responded to Lokko’s themes with pavilions that found a natural echo with the main show and its focus on climate change issues and an expanded, more-inclusive dialogue. 

Denmark offered practical solutions for coastal areas to work with nature to create solutions to rising seas, proposing Copenhagen islands that invite the sea in to form canals, not unlike Venice’s.  

Decolonization was a natural theme at the Brazilian pavilion, where curators Gabriela de Matos and Paulo Tavares show the architectural heritage of Indigenous and African Brazilians and challenge the “hegemonic” narrative that the capital, Brasilia, was built in the “middle of nowhere.” Their exhibit, titled “Terra,” was awarded the Golden Lion for the best national participant. 

The U.S. Pavilion looked at ubiquitous plastic, invented and propagated in the United States, and how to cope with its durability, under the title “Everlasting Plastic.” In one of the five exhibits, Norman Teague, a Chicago-based African American artist, designer and furniture-maker, used recycled plastics from such everyday items as Tide laundry detergent bottles to create one-off baskets, referencing weaves from Senegal and Ghana. 

Teague said he was inspired by Lokko’s themes to consider “how I could really think about the lineage between the continent and Chicago.” 

Ukraine returns to the Biennale with two installations that, in the gentlest possible way, serve as a reminder that war continues to rage in Europe. The pavilion in the Arsenale has been decked out in black-out materials to represent ad-hoc, if futile protective measures ordinary Ukrainians are taking against the threat of Russian bombardment. 

In the center of the Giardini, curators Iryna Miroshnykova, Oleksii Petrov and Borys Filonenko have recreated earthen mounds that served as barriers against 10th century invaders. Though long abandoned, overtaken by modern farming and sprawl, they proved effective against Russian tanks last spring. 

“These spaces, the fortifications, are a place to be quiet, to chill. But it is also kind of a reminder that somewhere, someone is fearing for their safety,” Filonenko said. 
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Sudan’s de facto leader, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, sacked his deputy-turned-rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo on Friday, as forces loyal to the feuding generals pressed on with fighting in both Khartoum and Darfur.

The United Nations meanwhile warned that humanitarian needs are increasing in Sudan, with aid chief Martin Griffith allocating $22 million in emergency funds to help Sudanese fleeing the violence.

The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) says more than 1 million people have been displaced by the power struggle between Burhan and Daglo, who leads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Hundreds have been killed in the fighting, which has now raged for more than a month.

On Friday, witnesses reported exchanges of fire both in the capital Khartoum and in the troubled Darfur region, where armed civilians have also entered the fray, stoking ethnic and tribal rivalries.

In Central Darfur, RSF fighters are trying to push Burhan’s military from its headquarters in the capital Zalingei, residents said.

In South Darfur capital Nyala, fighting killed 18 people Thursday, Sudan’s doctors syndicate said. Witnesses told AFP clashes were ongoing Friday.

Cease-fire efforts

The persistent violence has defied regional and international calls for a humanitarian cease-fire.

Sudan has been gripped by economic and political turmoil since veteran leader Omar al-Bashir was ousted by the military in 2019.

Two years later, a coup by Burhan and Daglo derailed a fragile transition to civilian rule, and forces loyal to the two men have been fighting relentlessly since April 15.

Representatives of the warring generals have been in Saudi Arabia, which hosted an Arab summit Friday and has been trying to hammer out a humanitarian cease-fire.

Asked about those talks, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said the focus was “on reaching a truce that allows Sudanese civilians to take a breather.”

Neighboring South Sudan on Friday defended its own efforts to broker an end to the conflict after the Sudanese foreign ministry protested its hosting of a delegation from Daglo earlier this week.

South Sudan’s government “has continued to play its part within (East African bloc) IGAD with absolute impartiality,” the foreign ministry in Juba said in a statement.

Daglo’s envoy Yusif Isha held talks with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and IGAD officials in Juba on Wednesday.

With neither side appearing to have the upper hand, on Friday Burhan sacked Daglo and appointed three allies to top jobs in the military.

“General Burhan has issued a constitutional decree assigning Malik Agar to the post of vice-president of the ruling transitional Sovereignty Council, effective today,” the council said on its Facebook page.

The military also reported that Burhan named General Shamsedding Kabashi to be his deputy, and chose two other loyal officers to be his assistants.

Emergency aid

Agar, a former rebel leader and governor of Blue Nile state on the South Sudan border, signed a peace deal with Khartoum in 2020 and was appointed to the Sovereignty Council in February 2021.

He leads one wing of the SPLM-North, formed in 2011 by northern fighters of the movement which led South Sudan to independence that year.

Observers consider Agar’s promotion as a symbolic move which is not expected to impact the power struggle between Burhan and Daglo.

The United Nations has voiced fears the crisis in Khartoum could spread to neighboring countries now flooded with Sudanese fleeing the violence. It renewed its appeals for the safety of civilians caught in the crossfire to be respected.

“Over a month since the fighting started, UNHCR … is making an urgent appeal for the safety of civilians and to allow humanitarian aid to move freely in Sudan,” Matthew Saltmarsh, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency, said Friday.

He said more than 1 million people have been displaced within Sudan or as refugees in neighboring countries.

“Inside Sudan, people are braving danger, moving notably from Khartoum, Darfur and other unsafe areas,” Saltmarsh said.

U.N. aid chief Griffiths said on Twitter he was “allocating $22 million… to support relief efforts in Chad, the Central African Republic, Egypt and South Sudan,” where Sudanese have sought refuge.

The United States on Friday promised $103 million for Sudan and neighboring countries to support displaced people.
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Sudan’s capital Khartoum and sister city Bahri came under renewed air attack on Friday as the war between the army and paramilitary forces entered its fifth week, deepening a humanitarian crisis for trapped and displaced civilians. 

Mass looting by armed men and civilians alike is making life an even greater misery for Khartoum residents pinned down by fierce fighting between the regular military and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, witnesses said. 

The conflict has displaced an estimated 843,000 people within Sudan and caused the flight of about 250,000 into neighboring countries, the United Nations refugee agency said Friday. 

Army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan took the long-anticipated step on Friday of removing RSF chief Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti, from his post as his deputy on the ruling Sovereign Council. 

The two had run the council since 2019 when they overthrew strongman President Omar al-Bashir amid mass protests of his rule, before staging a coup in 2021 as a deadline neared to hand power to civilians for a transition toward free elections. 

There has been no breakthrough in Saudi- and U.S.-sponsored cease-fire talks in the Saudi city of Jeddah. 

At an Arab League meeting there on Friday, a statement by Sudan’s envoy accused the RSF of looting and rape, and of violating a succession of cease-fires. 

“We trust that you will stand by the Sudanese army and will accompany us in the next step of reconstruction,” envoy Dafallah al-Haj added. 

The RSF has accused the army of starting the conflict and violating cease-fires. It says those who have committed crimes are wearing stolen RSF uniforms. 

Fighting broke out on April 15 after disputes over plans for the RSF to be integrated into the army and over the future chain of command under an internationally backed deal to shift Sudan towards democracy after decades of conflict-ridden autocracy. 

Burhan installed Malik Agar, leader of a rebel group who joined the council in 2020 after signing a peace agreement with the government, as his new deputy, according to a second decree. 

Later that day, Burhan promoted other military officers who served on the council, including appointing General Shams El-Din Kabbashi as deputy commander of the armed forces. Generals Yasser Al-Atta and Ibrahim Jabir were each appointed as assistants to the commander. 

‘Bodies everywhere’ 

Airstrikes on Friday targeted districts in eastern Khartoum and witnesses reported hearing anti-aircraft weapons used by the RSF. Bahri and Sharg el-Nil across the Nile River from Khartoum were subjected to airstrikes overnight and Friday morning. 

“On the road I saw about 30 military trucks destroyed by [air]strikes. There were bodies everywhere, some of them army and some RSF. Some had started decomposing. It was really horrible,” said Ahmed, a young man making his way through Bahri. 

The RSF is embedded in residential districts of much of Khartoum and adjoining Bahri and Omdurman, drawing almost continual airstrikes by the regular armed forces. 

Witnesses said the army had also started placing barriers on some roads in southern Khartoum to keep the RSF away from an important military base there. 

Fighting also flared in the city of Nyala, capital of the South Darfur region in the southwest, for a second day after weeks of relative calm. 

Heavy gunfire and artillery detonations went on all day in Nyala. A local market caught fire and it was difficult for those injured to get to hospitals, local activists said. The Darfur Bar Association, a human rights group, said that 27 people had been killed and dozens injured so far. 

They called on the RSF, whose movements it blamed for the flare-up, to re-commit to a locally brokered truce. 

Militia attacks and subsequent clashes in the West Darfur city of Geneina have claimed the lives of hundreds. 

With the fighting has come a collapse in law and order, with rampant looting, blamed by the army and RSF on each other, hitting Sudanese homes, factories, gold markets, banks, vehicles and churches. A rapid dwindling of stocks of food, cash and other essentials is driving much of the pillaging. 

“Nobody protects us. No police. No state. The criminals are attacking our houses and taking everything we own,” said Sarah Abdelazim, 35, a government employee in Khartoum. 

Some 705 people have been killed and at least 5,287 injured, according to the World Health Organization. 
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