Heavy rains and flooding have killed at least 130 people in Rwanda, officials said Thursday. The country began mass burial of victims, mostly in northern and western provinces.

In a service punctuated by tears and stories from the relatives of the victims, 14 bodies were laid to rest Thursday at Rugerero cemetery, 15 kilometers from Rubavu town in western Rwanda.

“A strong wave hit both of us and she lost hold of the support we were clinging to. That was the last time I saw her alive,” Felix Nteziyaremye said, remembering the last moments with his wife Generose Mukamurenzi, 26, who was buried Thursday. Their 6-month-old baby survived.

Rwandan Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente attended the burial service and said authorities will “continue to ensure that you [victims] have shelter and basic needs.”

A VOA Central Africa Service reporter in western Rwanda said floods destroyed hundreds of houses, roads and other infrastructure in the area. On Wednesday, dozens of vulnerable people were trapped in partially submerged houses as they waited for rescue, the reporter said.

More than 5,100 houses destroyed

The floods that began Tuesday evening have destroyed more than 5,100 houses and impacted an additional 2,500, deputy government spokesperson Alain Mukuralinda told reporters.

Speaking to VOA earlier, Mukuralinda warned that the death toll may be higher and that rescuers are still trying to reach people and properties washed away by flooding.

Affected areas include the districts of Rubavu, Ngororero, Nyabihu, Rutsiro, Karongi, Gakenke, Burera, Musanze and Nyamagabe, according to a statement released by the office of the president on Wednesday.

“We are doing everything within our means to address this difficult situation. I am personally following up the response closely,” President Paul Kagame said in a statement.

The president said ongoing rescue efforts include “evacuation and temporary relocation of residents from affected and high-risk areas while rains are ongoing.”

“I have lost everything,” Nyirabihingwa Florence, a resident of the flood-stricken western province, told VOA. “I had seven houses, 500 chicken, a full food store, many things. Everything has been washed away. I have nothing.”

Witnesses in the area say the floods gained momentum due to the overflowing of the nearby Sebeya River.

Hundreds of people are still missing, and several houses submerged in water are collapsing, witnesses told VOA’s Central Africa Service.

“We saw a powerful wave of flood water sweeping through compounds, ripping through houses and leaving nothing in its wake as we struggled to cling to anything nearby to survive. It was horrific,” Nzayisenga Christine, another resident, recounted.

“We are asking the government to put in place a mechanism that stops this river from overflooding in case of heavy rains such as today.”

A communique from the office of the president says the government has set up a command center to coordinate emergency response.

“We are setting up tents in safer areas where we shall be receiving those affected by the floods as rescue operations continue,” spokesperson Mukuralinda told VOA.

Local authorities overwhelmed

Disasters such as floods and landslides are not uncommon in this part of Rwanda. But the magnitude of the latest occurrence seems to have overwhelmed local authorities who sought intervention on national level.

Meanwhile, the National Meteorological Center recently warned that Rwanda is likely to experience heavy rains in May.

Tuesday’s downpour and floods also extended to parts of southwestern Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to local authorities.

Some information for this report came from Reuters.
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Zambia’s opposition has criticized an agreement with Kenya to allow Kenyan farming of maize in Zambia to help meet its food needs amid a record drought. The National Democratic Congress says Zambian farmers should be given priority for farming Zambian land for exports to Kenya and note problems with maize supplies at home. Kathy Short reports from Lusaka, Zambia. Camera:  Richard Kille.
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In Sudan, heavy fighting was reported in and around the capital Khartoum early Thursday, despite a weeklong cease-fire agreed to by both sides in the conflict.

Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Defense Forces each appeared to be trying to push the other out of central Khartoum and control areas around the presidential palace and army headquarters.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed Wednesday for an end to the fighting in Sudan and international support for the Sudanese people, who he said are facing a humanitarian catastrophe.

“Aid must be allowed into Sudan, and we need secure and immediate access to be able to distribute it to people who need it most,” Guterres said during a news conference in Nairobi, Kenya. “Civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected, and humanitarian workers and their assets must be respected.”

Sudan’s Health Ministry says more than 500 people have been killed and nearly 5,000 wounded since the fighting began April 15, during a power struggle between the leaders of the Sudanese government forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

The U.N. migration agency (IOM) said this week that at least 334,000 people have been internally displaced by the fighting, in addition to the 100,000 who have fled the country. The U.N. refugee agency has warned the fighting could cause more than 800,000 people to flee the northeastern African country.

Many are going to the seven countries that border Sudan, including Chad, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Egypt and Ethiopia.

Latest cease-fire efforts

South Sudan’s Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday that Sudanese army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, had agreed to the new cease-fire.

The U.N. chief expressed concern that previous cease-fires have consistently been violated, and he urged the international community to press the two generals to respect and implement the latest one.

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir stressed the importance of a longer truce and the naming of envoys to peace talks, to which both sides agreed.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said his government would support talks in Sudan between the rival factions, adding he is “being careful about not interfering in their domestic matters.”

“The entire region could be affected,” he said in an interview Tuesday with a Japanese newspaper, as an envoy from Sudan’s army chief met with Egyptian officials in Cairo.

Humanitarian operation

U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths spent Wednesday in Port Sudan — the Sudanese Red Sea city where the U.N. and many nongovernmental organizations have shifted their operations from Khartoum.

Griffiths and the head of the U.N. in Sudan, Volker Perthes, spoke by phone with al-Burhan and Dagalo.

Griffiths told reporters he is working on getting commitments from the two factions to protect humanitarian assistance and allow aid workers and supplies to move, even when there is no formal cease-fire.

“We will need to have agreements at the highest level and very publicly, and we will need to deliver those commitments into local arrangements that can be depended on,” he said, emphasizing that the humanitarian community is “staying and delivering.”

Most aid operations have been suspended or severely scaled back due to the insecurity. Several aid workers have been killed in the fighting. The Norwegian Refugee Council said Wednesday that one of their Sudanese volunteers was killed Sunday in the volatile city of Geneina in West Darfur.

Looting also has hampered aid operations.

The World Food Program said Wednesday that nearly 17,000 tons of food had been stolen from its warehouses across Sudan, and it was working to determine what supplies remain. Before the fighting, WFP had more than 80,000 tons of stocks in the country. The agency still plans to provide food assistance for 384,000 people in the coming days.

The U.N. refugee agency’s Darfur coordinator said looting has long been a problem in Darfur, and many of their facilities have been robbed since April 15.

“Our facilities in Nyala, in South Darfur, and in El Geneina, in West Darfur, have been targeted by looters, criminals, bandits, out of control militias,” Toby Harward told reporters in a video call from Nairobi, where he was evacuated last week.

He said local authorities in Darfur have been working with humanitarians to try to make sure the various national cease-fires are respected at the local level, so aid can be distributed.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said Thursday it has launched an emergency appeal to support the Sudanese Red Crescent Society to deliver assistance to 200,000 people.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced Wednesday the temporary suspension of its food assistance to the Tigray region of Ethiopia.

While describing the move as a “difficult decision,” USAID Administrator Samantha Power said the agency recently discovered that food aid intended for people of the region, who are suffering under famine-like condition, was being diverted and sold on the local market.

The agency referred the matter to its Office of the Inspector General, which launched an investigation and sent leaders from its Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance to Ethiopia before deciding on a temporary pause in food aid, she said.

Power said the U.S. government has raised its concerns with officials from the Ethiopian federal government and the Tigray Interim Regional Administration, and that the officials have expressed willingness to work with the U.S. to identify and hold those responsible accountable.

She said USAID “stands ready” to restart the program once strong oversight measures are in place, and it has confidence that assistance will reach the intended vulnerable populations.

A two-year war that broke out in November 2020 between the federal government and forces led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the party that dominates the region, killed tens of thousands of people, created famine-like conditions for hundreds of thousands and displaced millions.

The government and Tigray forces agreed to end the hostilities in November, which has allowed additional aid to reach the region and for some services to be restored.

Power said the pause has dealt another blow to already suffering civilians and reiterated the United States’ commitment to the Ethiopian people.

“While food aid to the Tigray Region is paused, other vital assistance not implicated in the diversion scheme will continue, including life-saving nutritional supplements, safe drinking water, and support for agricultural activities and development,” she said.  
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A top United Nations official is calling on Sudan’s rival military leaders to publicly commit themselves to the safe delivery of humanitarian assistance to millions of people struggling to survive amid escalating fighting.

At the end of a three-day troubleshooting visit to the region, Martin Griffiths, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said the Sudanese people face a humanitarian catastrophe.

Speaking by video link from Port Sudan, Griffiths said it was essential that the leaders of the two warring factions publicly back the efforts of humanitarian agencies to provide relief to those in need.

He said he was already working on a plan to get supplies where they are needed and that he sought “to be sure that we have the commitments publicly and clearly given by the two militaries to protect humanitarian assistance.”

Griffiths said it was important for them “to deliver on the obligations to allow supplies for people to move, and that we should do that … even when there is no formal natural cease-fire.”

Griffiths said he and Volker Perthes, U.N. special representative for Sudan, spoke Wednesday with Sudanese Armed Forces leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

In their talks, he said they stressed the need for humanitarian aid to reach the people. But for that to happen, Griffiths said he told the generals that strong guarantees on the safety of aid workers and supplies had to be backed up with agreements from the top.

“It seems to me that getting those commitments is a condition precedent for large-scale humanitarian action,” Griffiths said. “And I say large-scale because humanitarian action is continuing day by day by day, and it has been a mistake to suggest that it stopped.”

Griffiths said the U.N. was hampered in its ability to provide for the Sudanese people because of severe funding shortages. He said only $200 million of the U.N.’s $1.7 billion appeal for Sudan, which was launched before this crisis, has been received.

He said money is needed to get assistance to the different parts of Darfur and to hardest-hit urban areas, especially Khartoum. 

Besides money, Griffiths said, “We need access, we need airlift, we need supplies that do not get looted.

“The World Food Program today told me six trucks of theirs which were going to Darfur were looted, despite assurances of safety and security.”

He reiterated, “We need to be very, very clear about commitments made to ensure the safety of moving the supplies from Port Sudan, or indeed from Chad to Darfur to Port Sudan and westwards to places of need.” 

Griffiths said medicines, food, clean water, fuel and other critical commodities are desperately needed.

He said the Food and Agriculture Organization and WFP told him Wednesday about “the importance of getting the food and seeds into places which are going to be hard to reach because of the rainy season that is coming in June,” and corresponds with the planting season. 

Since fighting between the two warring factions began more than three weeks ago, at least 334,000 people have been displaced inside Sudan, and more than 100,000 have fled to neighboring countries in search of assistance and protection. 

Sudan’s Federal Ministry of Health reports some 528 people have been killed and 4,620 injured, although U.N. agencies say they believe the toll to be much higher. 
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A high-ranking United Nations official arrived Wednesday in violence-torn Sudan as the deadline approaches for the latest shaky cease-fire agreement between the two warring factions.   
 

U.N. emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths tweeted that he was in the beleaguered city of Port Sudan to “reaffirm the @UN’s commitment to the Sudanese people.” 

 

 

Scores of people have crowded into Sudan’s main seaport to escape the nearly three-week-old fighting between Sudanese government forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Sudan’s health ministry says 550 people reportedly have been killed and more than 4,900 wounded since the fighting began on April 15 after relations between the two factions fell apart.  

 

South Sudan’s foreign ministry announced Tuesday that Sudanese army chief General Abdel Fattah Burhan and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, have agreed to a new weeklong cease-fire agreement that will take effect Thursday.   

 

Previous cease-fire agreements of various lengths have consistently been violated during the fighting, however, with neither side able to secure a quick victory nor showing any signs of backing down – raising the specter of a prolonged conflict that could draw in other countries.

 

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir stressed the importance of a longer truce and the naming of envoys to peace talks, to which both sides agreed.

 

Burhan and Dagalo were allies in Sudan’s transitional government after a 2021 coup, and they shared power as part of an internationally backed transition toward free elections and civilian government.

 

With fighting now in its third week, the conflict has forced 100,000 people to flee Sudan for safety, and it is creating a refugee crisis in neighboring impoverished countries, the United Nations said.

 

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said his government would support talks in Sudan between the rival factions but said he also was “being careful about not interfering in their domestic matters.”

 

“The entire region could be affected,” he said in an interview Tuesday with a Japanese newspaper, as an envoy from Sudan’s army chief met with Egyptian officials in Cairo.

 

The U.N. World Food Program said Monday it was resuming work in the safer parts of Sudan after a pause earlier in the conflict after some aid workers were killed.

 

The agency said in a statement on Monday that distribution of food is expected to commence in the states of Gedaref, Gezira, Kassala and White Nile in the coming days to provide life-saving assistance.

 

“The risk is that this is not just going to be a Sudan crisis, it’s going to be a regional crisis,” said Michael Dunford, the aid agency’s East Africa director.

 

The United Nations migration agency said earlier this week that at least 334,000 people have been internally displaced in Sudan since deadly fighting broke out last month, in addition to the 100,000 who have fled the country. The U.N. refugee agency, meanwhile, has warned the fighting could cause more than 800,000 people to flee the northeastern African country.    

 

The top U.N. official in Sudan, Volker Perthes, told The Associated Press on Monday that Sudan’s warring generals have agreed to send representatives — potentially to Saudi Arabia — for negotiations.   

 

The Sudanese ambassador to the United States, Mohamed Abdalla Idris, told VOA he hopes the cease-fire eventually will lead to meaningful long-term peace talks.    

 

He said, “a cease-fire, truce, is a two-way traffic,” and noted peace can only be realized if all parties respect the terms of any deal.  

 

The fighting in Sudan has forced foreign governments to pull their citizens from the country.  

 

Russia’s military announced Tuesday that more than 200 people will be evacuated on four military transports.   

 

Hundreds of Americans reached the eastern city of Port Sudan last weekend, watched over by U.S. military drones. Saudi officials said Monday that a U.S. Navy ship took more than 300 evacuees from Port Sudan to the Saudi port of Jeddah.  

 

The U.S. State Department said Monday that three U.S. convoys evacuated more than 700 people since Friday and reported a total of more than 1,000 U.S. citizens have been evacuated since the violence started.  

The violence has also spread to Sudan’s western Darfur region, where the RSF began as the Janjaweed militia, which was formed by former authoritarian president Omar al-Bashir from Arab tribal militias working alongside government troops in a brutal war against ethnic minority rebels.   

 

The non-governmental Norwegian Refugee Council issued a statement condemning the violence that has claimed more than 190 lives, including that of an NRC volunteer.  The statement said dozens of settlements have been burned and destroyed as a result of the fighting.   

 

“Families across Sudan, including those of our colleagues, are being torn apart, and having to choose between remaining trapped in the battlefield, or risking their lives to flee or reach an overcrowded hospital,” said Jan Egeland, the NRC’s Secretary-General.

 

“They are running out of everything, including water, food, electricity, fuel, and cash,” Egeland continued. “We need the international community to put as much effort into secure humanitarian access, regardless of ceasefire and in providing aid to millions of people as they have in evacuating their own citizens.”

Michael Atit in Khartoum; Margaret Besheer at the United Nations; Anthony LaBruto; John Tanza, Nike Ching at the State Department contributed to this story.  Some information in this report came from The Associated
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Some 258 million people needed emergency food aid last year because of conflict, economic shocks and climate disasters, a U.N. report said Wednesday, a sharp rise from 193 million the previous year.   

“More than a quarter of a billion people are now facing acute levels of hunger, and some are on the brink of starvation. That’s unconscionable,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.   

It was “a stinging indictment of humanity’s failure to make progress… to end hunger, and achieve food security and improved nutrition for all,” he said.   

More than 40% of those in serious need of food lived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Yemen, the U.N. report said.   

“Conflicts and mass displacement continue to drive global hunger,” Guterres said.   

“Rising poverty, deepening inequalities, rampant underdevelopment, the climate crisis and natural disasters also contribute to food insecurity.”   

In 2022, 258 million people faced high levels of acute food insecurity in 58 countries or territories, up from 193 million in 53 countries the previous year, the report said.   

This overall figure has now increased for the fourth year in a row. 
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According to this year’s World Press Freedom rankings, the environment for journalism is bad in seven out of 10 countries worldwide. The yearly rankings published by Reporters Without Borders evaluates 180 countries. From Nairobi, VOA’s Mariama Diallo looks at the meaning of the rankings in Africa where analysts say journalism has become more difficult and dangerous.
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After a brief hiatus, anti-government demonstrations organized by opposition leader Raila Odinga resumed Tuesday in some parts of Kenya, including the capital, Nairobi.

Odinga and his supporters say they had hoped President William Ruto’s government would let them express their opinions through peaceful protests.

Instead, “at the crack of dawn, police got stationed in all parts of [the] Nairobi metropolis and the city center to prevent us from proceeding with our peaceful protests as we had planned,” Martha Karua said.

It wasn’t only the police that were unleashed, Karua noted at a press conference held later in the day. Karua is a former justice minister who was also Odinga’s running mate.

“As we have earlier warned, hooligans hired by the Kenya Kwanza illegitimate regime were unleashed to cause mayhem and destroy property and blame it on our peaceful protests,” Karua said.

Odinga doesn’t recognize Ruto’s recent election victory, even after legal challenges by the veteran leader ended up with the supreme court deciding Ruto had won.

Karua said, because of today’s conditions, the Odinga camp was not able to present critical petitions to certain offices as planned.

“We intended to present petitions to the IEBC, showing that the results that were announced last August were doctored, and demand an audit of the servers,” Karua said.

“We also intended to petition the office of the president, I am saying this very deliberately, the office of the president with evidence the cost of food, fuel, electricity fees remain unacceptably high. The third office we were to visit was the National Treasury, where we wanted to petition for the immediate release of all funds owed to counties and for the timely payments of salaries to all civil servants.”

There was heavy police presence in many parts of the city, including in the central business district. Local reports show police firing tear gas to disperse a small crowd of protesters. Also, a minibus was set on fire.

On Monday, during a speech on International Workers’ Day, Ruto said he respects the opposition and acknowledged its right to protest, “but we also know what democracy looks like. We also know what human rights are. It is nothing to do with violence. It’s nothing to do with anarchy. It’s nothing to do with destruction of property and destruction of livelihoods and destruction of people’s businesses. That is not democracy. That is not human rights.”

Odinga had suspended protests last month, agreeing to dialogue with Ruto’s camp. But he later said the government was not negotiating in good faith. Odinga supporters say they’ll protest again on Thursday.
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Aid agencies are gearing up for what is expected to be a massive exodus of more than 800,000 refugees and returnees fleeing for safety from war-torn Sudan to neighboring countries at a time when U.N. humanitarian agencies and partners are facing a severe funding shortage.

“As of this morning, the $1.75 billion joint appeal for Sudan in 2023 is only 14 percent funded,” said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the Organization for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. “In other words, U.N. humanitarian agencies and our partners are facing a funding gap of $1.5 billion.”

The U.N. refugee agency reports more than 100,000 Sudanese refugees have fled to neighboring countries since fighting erupted between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on April 15.

But events are moving quickly. Violence is escalating in the capital, Khartoum, and throughout the country. People are struggling to get food, water, fuel and other critical commodities, pushing an ever-increasing number of desperate people to flee for their lives.

In response to this humanitarian crisis, the UNHCR is drawing up a financial and operational plan based on the 800,000 projected figure. When it is ready, the agency says it will launch an Interagency Regional Refugee Response Plan, which will lay out the preparations being made to deal with the emergency, including financial needs.

The UNHCR notes countries neighboring Sudan already are hosting large refugee and internally displaced populations from previous crises and will require additional support to provide protection and assistance to thousands of newly arriving asylum seekers.

“Among the urgent needs are water, food, shelter, health care, relief items, gender-based violence response and preventions and child protection services,” said Olga Sarrado, UNHCR spokeswoman.

She said the most significant cross-border movements so far have been Sudanese refugees arriving in Chad and Egypt and South Sudanese returning to South Sudan.

An indication of the speed with which things are happening can be seen at South Sudan’s five northern borders with Sudan. A week ago, the UNHCR had registered some 4,000 South Sudanese refugees who had returned home prematurely from Sudan. The agency says that number has now risen to 24,469, as well as 2,800 Sudanese refugees, who have fled to South Sudan for safety.

“We have seen a change in the patterns of people arriving at the border since the first days of the emergency,” said Sarrado. “We saw people arriving with buses, with cars. They had more financial means to pay for this transportation.”

“Those that are arriving now, they are much more vulnerable,” said Sarrado. “They have not had food for days, some of them, and they do not have economic means.”

She said the UNHCR and partners have set up transit centers at the border to provide the new arrivals with emergency assistance, urgent protection and telecommunications service so that they can contact their families, and cash so they can continue their onward movement to other parts of the country.

The scale of displacement inside Sudan has reached a new high. The International Organization for Migration says at least 334,000 people have been displaced within Sudan because of the fighting.

“The number of displaced people in the last two weeks as a result of conflict exceeds all conflict-related displacements reported in 2022,” said Paul Dillon, spokesman for the IOM.

In addition to internal displacement, he said the IOM also is gathering data at various border points in neighboring states.

“Of course, these movements are complicated by a whole series of factors,” he said. These include “instability and lack of security along transit routes, the lack of fuel and transport services for people who are desperate to leave Sudan and are fleeing to safety, as well as inflation in the marketplace.”

He added that staff were seeing some extremely fast-moving situations along the borders. “We are looking at Ethiopia for example, where the number of people arriving daily is between 900 and 1,000 and the needs there are very serious,” he said.

U.N. agencies agree that getting needed supplies to people inside Sudan is particularly difficult. The World Health Organization warns of a looming health disaster because medicine and other essential items are in short supply and only 16% of health care facilities in the country are functioning.

WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said many people are suffering from trauma injuries “so there is a need for supplies to treat trauma wounds, but also there is the issue of access to other health services, including to maternal health and newborn health,” as well as the lack of clean water.

“What we should keep in mind is that the biggest risk for Sudanese people right now is the conflict itself. Patients and health workers cannot access health facilities and services because they are not available,” he said.

The latest report from Sudan’s Federal Ministry of Health puts the number of injuries at 4,620, including 528 deaths — figures U.N. agencies believe are greatly underestimated.
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The United Nations migration agency says at least 334,000 people have been internally displaced in Sudan since deadly fighting broke out last month between two military factions.

The data was released Tuesday by the International Organization for Migration at a news conference in Geneva. At the same press briefing the U.N. refugee agency said that more than 100,000 people have fled from Sudan to neighboring countries.

The new figures come a day after the U.N. refugee agency made an ominous prediction that the fighting could force more than 800,000 people to flee the north African country.

Raouf Mazou, the deputy head of the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said Monday that the agency was planning for 815,000 people to flee Sudan into seven neighboring countries. He said that included 580,000 Sudanese along with foreign refugees now living in Sudan.

Mazou said around 73,000 people have already left Sudan.

UNHCR head Filippo Grandi said in a tweet Monday that the agency hopes its planning figures turn out to be too high, but said “if violence doesn’t stop, we will see more people forced to flee Sudan seeking safety.”

Fighting between Sudanese government forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continued Tuesday despite the extension of yet another cease-fire agreement. Sudan’s health ministry says more than 500 people have reportedly been killed and more than 4,000 wounded since the fighting began on April 15 after relations between army chief Abdel Fattah al Burhan and RSF chief Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. The two generals were once allies in Sudan’s transitional government after a 2021 coup.

The fighting has led to the seizure of a public health laboratory in the capital Khartoum by one of the warring factions. The lab holds samples of infectious diseases such as cholera and other hazardous materials. The World Health Organization said Tuesday the seizure posed a “moderate risk” of biological hazard after conducting risk assessment. The U.N. agency warned last week the seizure potentially posed a “high risk” of biological hazard.

A string of temporary truces has been widely ignored by both sides. The cease-fires were established by the two warring factions to allow people safe passage and to open a means for the country to receive humanitarian aid. However, while fighting has abated in some parts of the capital, heavy fighting has continued elsewhere. Each side has blamed the other for the infractions.

The top U.N. official in Sudan, Volker Perthes, told The Associated Press Monday that Sudan’s warring generals have agreed to send representatives — potentially to Saudi Arabia — for negotiations.

The Sudanese ambassador to the United States, Mohamed Abdalla Idris, told VOA he hopes the cease-fire will eventually lead to meaningful long-term peace talks.

He said, “a cease-fire, truce, is a two-way traffic,” and said peace can only be realized if all parties respect the terms of any deal.

The fighting has led the United Nations and other aid organizations to cut services to Sudan. However, the World Food Program said Monday that it was resuming operations to some areas of the country after a pause of more than two weeks prompted by the killing of three staff members.

The WFP said in a statement that distribution of food is expected to commence in the states of Gedaref, Gezira, Kassala and White Nile in the coming days to provide life-saving assistance.

The agency said, “We will take utmost care to ensure the safety of all our staff and partners as we rush to meet the growing needs of the most vulnerable.”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres dispatched U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths to Sudan to assess the situation there.

Writing on Twitter from Nairobi Monday, Griffiths described the situation in Sudan as “catastrophic.”

He said the warring parties must, “protect civilians and civilian infrastructure. Ensure safe passage for civilians fleeing areas of hostilities. Respect humanitarian workers and assets. Facilitate relief operations. Respect medical personnel, transport and facilities.”

The fighting in Sudan has forced foreign governments to pull its citizens from the country.

Russia’s military announced Tuesday that more than 200 people will be evacuated on four military transports.

Hundreds of Americans reached the eastern city of Port Sudan this weekend, watched over by U.S. military drones. Saudi officials said Monday that a U.S. Navy ship took more than 300 evacuees from Port Sudan to the Saudi port of Jeddah.

The U.S. State Department said Monday that three U.S. convoys evacuated over 700 people since Friday and said a total of over 1,000 U.S. citizens have been evacuated since the violence started in Sudan last month.

Britain’s government announced Sunday that it was offering an additional evacuation flight for its nationals in war-torn Sudan.

A late Saturday flight out of Wadi Seidna Airport had been set to be the last flight out of the African country for British nationals. However, Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office announced Sunday that another flight was leaving Monday from the airport in Port Sudan.

Michael Atit in Khartoum; Margaret Besheer at the United Nations; Anthony LaBruto; John Tanza, Nike Ching at the State Department contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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The growing rapprochement between Riyadh and Tehran after years of mistrust was visible on Monday as Saudi Arabia helped evacuate Iranian citizens fleeing the war in Sudan. 

The Saudi navy carried the 65 Iranian citizens from Port Sudan to Jeddah, and they will fly onward to Tehran. 

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani called the transfer “a positive event” that had taken place thanks to Saudi-Iranian cooperation. 

Ahmed al-Dabais, a senior Saudi military officer handling the operation, told Iranian evacuees in a video carried by local television that the two countries were good friends and brothers and that they should regard the kingdom as their own country. 

Saudi Arabia, across the Red Sea from Sudan, has been a major hub for the evacuation effort as countries have worked to pull thousands of foreign citizens out of the conflict that suddenly erupted on April 15. 

Revolutionary Shi’ite Muslim Iran and conservative Sunni Saudi Arabia had feuded for years, backing opposing sides in wars and political struggles across the Middle East in a tussle for influence that fed conflicts and inflamed sectarian hatred. 

Saudi Arabia cut off diplomatic relations in 2016 after Iranian protesters stormed the kingdom’s Tehran Embassy following Riyadh’s execution of a Shi’ite Muslim cleric. 

However, the two major oil producers agreed to end their rift and reopen diplomatic missions in a deal brokered in March by China. 
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