As the conflict in Sudan enters its third week with a shaky cease-fire, the current and former Sudanese ambassadors to Washington told VOA they hope the cease-fire will eventually lead to meaningful long-term talks for peace.

Ambassador Mohammed Abdullah Idris said peace can only be realized if all parties respect the terms of the truce.

“A cease-fire, truce, is a two-way traffic, so we hope that the other party will respect the truce and will respect the cease-fire, especially those elements of RSF [Rapid Support Forces] those [that] are deployed in residential areas, on roads, streets, intersections,” he told VOA during a one-on-one interview at the Sudanese Embassy in Washington.

Abdullah Idris said people in neighborhoods where the fighting has occurred need the opportunity to move to safety.

“As far as the government is concerned, I would like to assure you that we are committed to respecting the cease-fire so that the civilians could have the necessary and needed protection, and also to respect international humanitarian law,” he said. “Let us hope that it will hold and give the results, the expected results, on the ground and for the civilians and for the people of Sudan. The people of Sudan, they deserve tranquility, and they need it.”

He expressed hope in the mediation efforts initiated by the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development. The heads of South Sudan, Djibouti and Kenya are spearheading the negotiations for a lasting peace.

Human rights advocates criticized both warring parties for violations of human rights.

“From the start of the fighting, both sides to the conflict in Sudan have shown deadly disregard for the civilian population,” Mohamed Osman, a Sudan researcher at the New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

Mediation efforts

The United Nations and many western countries have also called for an end to the fighting.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington is in direct talks with General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the de facto leader of Sudan, and General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, also known as Hemedti, head of the RSF.

“We’ve also continued to engage directly with General al-Burhan to press them to extend and expand the Eid cease-fire to a sustainable cessation of hostilities that prevents further violence and upholds humanitarian obligations.” Blinken said. “The Sudanese people are not giving up on their aspirations for a secure, free and democratic future. Neither will we.”

Former Sudanese ambassador Nureldin Satti told VOA he hopes the temporary truce will lead to permanent peace and pave the way for a democratically elected government. But he blames the Sudanese Armed Forces for failing to address the expansion of the paramilitary RSF sooner. The RSF was created in 2013 and has steadily grown in power since that time.

“It was their own making,” Satti said. “They are the ones that created the RSF… they were their partners. And they allowed them to come to Khartoum. They allowed them to amass a fortune. They allowed them to make themselves even more powerful than the army. They allowed them to even occupy army locations around Khartoum.”

Abdullah Idris agreed that the conflict could have been avoided but said going forward, the government will work toward a peaceful transition.

“The government is committed to resume the political process if this kind of crisis is solved. And the political process should also lead to a civilian-led government that could lead a transitional period, expected to also end up with … free and fair elections.” he said.

This story originated in VOA’s English to Africa Service.
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The World Food Program said in a statement Monday that it has lifted its suspension of operations in Sudan, as the fighting there threatens millions with hunger.  

The WFP said distribution of food is expected to commence in the states of Gedaref, Gezira, Kassala and White Nile in the coming days to provide the life-saving assistance that many so desperately need right now. 

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.” 

The WFP suspended operations when three staff members were killed on the first day of the conflict between Sudan’s army and a paramilitary unit, the Rapid Support Forces. 

The WFP noted that more than 15 million people faced severe food insecurity in Sudan before the conflict began, and said it expects the number “to grow significantly as the fighting continues.” 

Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has dispatched U.N. emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths to Sudan to assess the situation there. 

Writing on Twitter from Nairobi Monday, Griffiths said, “We need to find ways to get aid into the country and distribute it to those in need,” as well as protect civilians, ensure safe passage for people fleeing the hostilities, and facilitate relief operations. 

Griffiths is expected to arrive on Tuesday. 
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The head of the United Nations in Sudan reiterated his call for the Sudanese warring parties to stop fighting and engage in a genuine dialogue. Efforts are being made to engage representatives of the military and the rapid support forces to meet for the first time in a third country.

Volker Perthes, who leads the United Nations Integrated Transitional Assistance Mission in Sudan, or UNITAMS, said a genuine dialogue is the only way resolve any grievances that led to the ongoing fighting.

“Up to this moment, there is no direct talks going on, but we are at the preparation stage for talks between the two parties,” Perthes said. “Some regional and international countries are engaging the two sides for these talks. We fully support these efforts, and I personally are in  [and] continue direct communication with the two sides.”

More than 500 civilians and fighters have been killed and over 4,000 others injured since the fighting erupted more than two weeks ago.

The warring parties have announced a series of cease-fires, but none held for long.

The humanitarian situation in the country continues to deteriorate as more than two-thirds of hospitals in areas of active fighting are shut down due to attacks and a lack of medical supplies, staff, water and electricity.

Perthes insisted any cease-fire must be observed by both sides.

“We need to step in and help the situation out,” he said. “Citizens need to come out of their homes and hospitals are in need of medical supplies. In order to realize all these, we need a true and effective cease-fire, not only making [the] announcement.”

Most humanitarian aid agencies and organizations suspended their operations in Khartoum and evacuated their staff outside of Sudan.

Perthes said he and other diplomatic missions have relocated “temporarily” to Port Sudan in hopes that some semblance of normalcy returns to the capital.

“Most of them have left the country temporarily,” he said. “And I insist on the word “temporarily” because we would like to go back to Khartoum when the security situation allows us to do so.”

The Rapid Support Forces announced Sunday evening yet another 72-hour cease-fire in response to the regional and international calls.

The Civil Aviation Authority in Sudan has issued a Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) that extends the closure of Sudanese airspace to all air traffic until May 13, with exception of humanitarian aid flights and evacuation flights for foreign nationals.

Those flights require a permit from the civil aviation authority and the approval of the Sudanese armed forces.
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Sudan’s army and its rival paramilitary said Sunday they will extend a humanitarian cease-fire a further 72 hours. The decision follows international pressure to allow the safe passage of civilians and aid, but the shaky truce has not so far stopped the clashes. 

In statements, both sides accused the other of violations. The agreement has deescalated the fighting in some areas, but violence continues to push civilians to flee. Aid groups have also struggled to get badly needed supplies into the country. 

The conflict erupted on April 15 between the nation’s army and its paramilitary force and threatens to thrust Sudan into a raging civil war. The U.N. warned on Sunday that the humanitarian crisis in Sudan was at “a breaking point.” 

“The scale and speed of what is unfolding in Sudan is unprecedented,” U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said in a statement. 

He said water and food are becoming increasingly hard to find in the country’s cities, especially the capital, Khartoum, and that the lack of basic medical care means many could die of preventable causes. Griffiths said that “massive looting” of aid supplies has hindered efforts to help civilians. 

SEE ALSO: A related video by VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias

Earlier Sunday, an aircraft carrying eight tons of emergency medical aid landed in Sudan to resupply hospitals devastated by the fighting, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which organized the shipment. It arrived as the civilian death toll from the countrywide violence topped 400 and aid groups warned that the humanitarian situation was becoming increasingly dire. 

More than two-thirds of hospitals in areas with active fighting are out of service, a national doctors’ association has said, citing a shortage of medical supplies, health workers, water and electricity. 

The air-lifted supplies, including anesthetics, dressings, sutures and other surgical material, are enough to treat more than 1,000 people wounded in the conflict, the ICRC said. The aircraft took off earlier in the day from Jordan and safely landed in the city of Port Sudan, it said. 

“The hope is to get this material to some of the most critically busy hospitals in the capital” of Khartoum and other hot spots, said Patrick Youssef, ICRC’s regional director for Africa. 

The Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate, which monitors casualties, said Sunday that over the past two weeks, 425 civilians were killed and 2,091 wounded. The Sudanese Health Ministry on Saturday put the overall death toll, including fighters, at 528, with 4,500 wounded. 

Some of the deadliest battles have raged across Khartoum. The fighting pits the army chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, against Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces. 

The generals, both with powerful foreign backers, were allies in an October 2021 military coup that halted Sudan’s fitful transition to democracy, but they have since turned on each other. 

Ordinary Sudanese have been caught in the crossfire. Tens of thousands have fled to neighboring countries, including Chad and Egypt, while others remain pinned down with dwindling supplies. Thousands of foreigners have been evacuated in airlifts and land convoys. 

On Sunday, fighting continued in different parts of the capital where residents hiding in their homes reported hearing artillery fire. There have been lulls in fighting, but never a fully observed cease-fire, despite repeated attempts by international mediators. 

Over the weekend, residents reported that shops were reopening and normalcy gradually returning in some areas of Khartoum as the scale of fighting dwindled after yet another shaky truce. But in other areas, terrified residents reported explosions thundering around them and fighters ransacking houses. 

Youssef, the ICRC official, said the agency has been in contact with the top command of both sides to ensure that medical assistance could reach hospitals safely. 

“With this news today, we are really hoping that this becomes part of a steady coordination mechanism to allow other flights to come in,” he said. 

Youssef said more medical aid was ready to be flown into Khartoum pending necessary clearances and security guarantees. 

Sudan’s healthcare system is near collapse with dozens of hospitals out of service. Multiple aid agencies have had to suspend operations and evacuated employees. 

On Sunday, a second U.S.-government organized convoy arrived in Port Sudan, said State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller. He said the U.S. is assisting American citizens and “others who are eligible” to leave for Saudi Arabia where U.S. personnel are located. There were no details on how many people were in the convoy or specific assistance the U.S. provided. 

Most of the estimated 16,000 Americans believed to be in Sudan right now are dual U.S.-Sudanese nationals. The Defense Department said in a statement on Saturday it was moving naval assets toward Sudan’s coast to support further evacuations. 

Meanwhile, Britain has announced that an extra evacuation flight will depart from Port Sudan on Monday, extending what it called the largest evacuation effort of any Western country from Sudan. 

The government asked British nationals who wish to leave Sudan to travel to the British Evacuation Handling Centre at Port Sudan International Airport before 12 p.m. Sudan time. The flight comes after an evacuation operation from Wadi Saeedna near Khartoum, involving 2,122 people on 23 flights. 
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Former Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok is calling on the international community to keep pressure on the warring sides in the Sudan conflict. Hamdok says the kind of engagement that enabled evacuations of foreigners could help bring a lasting truce. He spoke during the 2023 Mo Ibrahim Governance weekend in Kenya.

Answering questions from Mo Ibrahim, the founder of the Ibrahim Foundation, Hamdok said a strong, unified approach by the international community would help end the military fighting in Sudan, which he terms senseless.

According to the former prime minister, it is crucial to put clearly defined roles upon the military, which he said must stay away from politics. 

Hamdok was ousted in an October 2021 coup and he contends the current configuration is not to be trusted.

This week, U.N. Sudan envoy Volker Perthes called on the rival military factions to fully adhere to the agreed upon cease-fire. He said Sudan military commander Gen. Abdel Fattah al Burhan and Rapid Support Forces leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo appear to be “closer to negotiations” than they have been,” though Burhan informed the media he “would not sit down at the same table as the leader of the ‘rebellion.’”

Both military factions have defended their stance. Sudan’s military maintains the deployment of RSF troops in parts of the country are unlawful. In a statement Saturday, Dagalo said the RSF remains committed to a cease-fire and is working to open corridors for Sudanese residents and non-residents.

Citizens complained on social media, though, that Dagalo’s Rapid Support Forces had raided their homes and stolen money, gold and other possessions. VOA could not independently confirm the claims. 

More than 500 people have been killed and upwards of 4,000 have been wounded, according to the United Nations, in the conflict between Sudan’s military and the country’s paramilitary force that is entering its third week.
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A U.S.-sponsored youth festival opened Saturday in Ethiopia with the theme “Be Inspired, Own Your Future.” The two-day festival is being held just months after a bloody two-year civil war ended in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and as peace talks begin with the rebel Oromo Liberation Army (OLA).

Nearly 20,000 youth from around the country are expected to take part over two days.

U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia Tracey Ann Jacobson spoke about the importance of the festival during her opening remarks.

“The point of it is to provide job opportunities, to provide access to loans, to provide better opportunities for leadership and health care for young people throughout Ethiopia,” she said, “and I have seen it grow from a tiny seed that we started in March to this amazing program that we have today.”

Ethiopian Minister for Women and Social Affairs Ergoge Tesfaye spoke at the event about addressing the vulnerabilities of young people.

“Government and non-governmental institutions, other members of the community, as well as the youth themselves, need to understand that they are exposed to a variety of problems along with this untapped potential and providing necessary solutions and steps is expected from all of us,” she said.

Last week, the Ethiopian government started talks with representatives of the OLA in Tanzania after years of protracted communal conflict in Ethiopia’s Oromia region.

Entrepreneurs and creative individuals from across 17 cities in Ethiopia are showcasing their work at the Addis Ababa festival, but the event did not have representatives from the Tigray region because of the war’s impact.

Boni Bekele, from the Oromia region, had a booth for a clothing design shop at the market fair within the festival.

He said that he used to be able to work across the country in previous years but not anymore.

The government has made millions of young people lose hope, he said. But their strengths should be used, he said, and not just as soldiers, because that won’t transform a country. It’s philosophy, science and skills that can change a country, he said, adding that this must be a priority.

The youth festival also featured a tech village and an art gallery.

One of the artists presenting her work was 23-year-old Melat Shiferaw, who came from Dire Dawa in the eastern part of Ethiopia.

For her, though the current environment in the country is not encouraging, she hopes things will soon fall into place.

As humans, she said, we live not just thinking about today, but what we hope for tomorrow, hoping tomorrow will be better.

The festival, supported by USAID for five years, is expected to include participants from Tigray in coming years, as organizers finalize a post-conflict assessment in the region.
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An accountant working on a high-profile corruption case was killed along with his son by unknown gunmen while traveling on one of South Africa’s main highways. A government health department employee who warned of illegal dealings worth nearly $50 million was shot 12 times in the driveway of her home. 

The slayings and other cases have anti-corruption groups urging South African authorities to provide far better protection for whistleblowers. They also have fueled outrage over widespread graft linked to government contracts, which has plagued Africa’s most developed economy for years but appears to continue unabated. 

The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime counted a total of 1,971 assassination cases in South Africa between 2000 and 2021, with whistleblowers accounting for many of the targeted individuals. 

The specialist accountant and liquidator, 57-year-old Cloete Murray, was working on the financial accounts of a company that was heavily implicated in allegedly bribing government ministers and others to win huge state contracts. 

The company, previously known as Bosasa and now named African Global Holdings, was one of the most prominent subjects of the Zondo Commission a judicial inquiry into government and other high-level corruption during the 2008-2019 presidency of Jacob Zuma, who is on trial on separate corruption allegations. 

Murray was shot in the head while driving with his son in an SUV on the N1 highway just outside Johannesburg in March. He died in the hospital. His son, Thomas Murray, who worked with his father, was declared dead at the scene. No one has been arrested in the killings, which police said had the hallmarks of a professional hit. 

South African anti-corruption organization Corruption Watch said the killings of the Murrays was further evidence that the country faced “a crisis in terms of the rule of law.” 

“Levels of public confidence in our law enforcement capabilities, not to mention the political will to hold criminals and the corrupt accountable, have dropped to an all-time low,” Corruption Watch executive director Karam Singh said. “As the most recent example, the brazen murder of Cloete Murray and his son sends a chilling and intimidating message to anyone seeking to end impunity for corruption and crime. This must represent a turning of the tide for our country.” 

The death of Babita Deokaran, an employee of the health department in Gauteng province, already underlined the dangers for whistleblowers in South Africa. Her August 2021 slaying was described as an assassination. Six men have been charged with murder in her killing. 

Deokaran had spoken up about potentially corrupt payments to more than 200 companies by the health department and was a key witness in a probe by the country’s anti-corruption Special Investigating Unit into contracts worth more than $45 million. 

She was shot multiple times inside her car soon after dropping her daughter off at school and her story has become a rallying call. 

Deokaran’s killing spurred another corruption whistleblower, Athol Williams, to leave the country, he said. Williams testified before the Zondo Commission implicating about 39 parties in corrupt activities at the country’s tax authority, the South African Revenue Service. Williams is a former partner at consultancy firm Bain & Co, which he also accused of in his allegations regarding the tax authority. 

He said he testified out of a sense of civic duty but was not offered any protection despite the important evidence he provided and will not return to his home country unless his safety is guaranteed. 

“Without any assurance for my safety from our government, combined with the fact that none of the parties I implicated have been prosecuted, it is unlikely that I can return. This breaks my heart,” Williams said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It is the lowest form of unethical behavior to ask a citizen to risk their life for our country and then not offer them protection when they face retaliation.” 

South Africa’s Department of Justice did not respond to messages seeking comment on Williams’ experience and the general policy on protection for whistleblowers. But in his State of the Nation Address this year, President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged shortcomings and the need to strengthen the witness protection unit. 

This week, the former head of the state-owned electricity utility, a company brought to its knees by mismanagement and corruption, appeared at a parliamentary hearing virtually from an “undisclosed location” because of fears for his safety, he said. 

Andre de Ruyter has spoken of corruption linked to the government and others at the utility and said Wednesday that unnamed sources who provided him with information feared for their lives. 

He has also claimed he survived an attempt on his life when his coffee was laced with cyanide. 

“The alleged criminal and unlawful activities … involve elements that are best characterized as organized crime,” de Ruyter said. 
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Warplanes on bombing raids drew heavy anti-aircraft fire over Khartoum on Saturday as fierce fighting between Sudan’s army and paramilitaries entered a third week, despite a renewed truce.

Sudan has plunged into chaos and lawlessness since the fighting erupted on April 15 between forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his No. 2, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Burhan and Dagalo have agreed to multiple truces since the start of the conflict, but none has effectively taken hold, with each side blaming the other for breaching them.

The latest three-day cease-fire was agreed Thursday after mediation led by the United States, Saudi Arabia, the African Union and the United Nations aimed at securing a more lasting truce.

“We woke up once again to the sound of fighter jets and anti-aircraft weapons blasting all over our neighborhood,” a witness in southern Khartoum told AFP.

Another witness said fighting had been ongoing since the early morning, especially around the state broadcaster’s headquarters in the capital’s twin city of Omdurman.

Residents across Khartoum — home to five million people — have largely sheltered at home despite supplies of food and water dwindling to dangerously low levels, and a lack of electricity.

Some managed to sneak out only during brief lulls in fighting to buy desperately needed supplies.

Trading blame

As battles raged on the ground, the two rival generals took aim at each other in the media, with Burhan branding the RSF a militia that aims “to destroy Sudan,” in an interview with US-based TV channel Alhurra.

He also claimed “mercenaries” were pouring over the border from Chad, Central African Republic and Niger to exploit the chaos.

Dagalo denounced the army chief in an interview with the BBC, saying he was “not trustworthy” and a “traitor.”

The clashes have so far killed at least 512 people and wounded 4,193, according to the health ministry, with the death toll feared to be much higher.

Some 75,000 have been internally displaced by the fighting in Khartoum and the states of Blue Nile, North Kordofan, as well as the restive western region of Darfur, the U.N. said.

Tens of thousands of Sudanese have fled into neighboring countries including Egypt, Ethiopia, Chad and South Sudan, while foreign countries have carried out mass evacuations of their nationals.

Britain said it would end evacuation flights for its citizens and their relatives Saturday, after airlifting more than 1,500 people this week.

The United Nations said on Friday that its last international staff had been evacuated from Darfur.

The World Food Program has said the violence could plunge millions more into hunger in a country where 15 million people — one-third of the population — already need aid to stave off famine.

‘Alarming’ conditions in Darfur

In West Darfur state, at least 96 people were reported to have been killed in the city of Geneina since Monday, according to U.N. human rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani.

The United Nations described the situation in Darfur as “alarming” while Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said there were reports of widespread looting, destruction, and burning of property, including at camps for displaced people.

“The current fighting has forced us to stop almost all of our activities in West Darfur,” said Sylvain Perron, MSF’s deputy operations manager for Sudan.

“We are incredibly worried about the impact this violence is having on people who have already lived through waves of violence in the previous years.”

Darfur is still reeling from its devastating 2003 war, when then hardline president Omar al-Bashir unleashed the Janjaweed militia, mainly recruited from Arab pastoralist tribes, to crush ethnic minority rebels.

The notorious Janjaweed — accused by rights groups of committing atrocities in Darfur — later evolved into the RSF, which was formally created in 2013.

The scorched-earth campaign left at least 300,000 people dead and close to 2.5 million displaced, according to U.N. figures, and saw Bashir charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide by the International Criminal Court.

Burhan and Daglo — commonly known as Hemeti — seized power in a 2021 coup that derailed Sudan’s transition to democracy, established after Bashir was ousted following mass protests in 2019.

But the two generals later fell out, most recently over the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army.
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Strikes by air, tanks and artillery rocked Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, and the adjacent city of Bahri on Friday, witnesses said, mocking a 72-hour truce extension announced by the army and a rival paramilitary force. 

Hundreds have been killed and tens of thousands have fled for their lives in a power struggle between the army and Rapid Support Forces that erupted on April 15 and disabled an internationally backed transition toward democratic elections.  

The fighting has also reawakened a two-decade-old conflict in the western Darfur region where scores have died this week.  

In the Khartoum area, heavy gunfire and detonations rattled residential neighborhoods. Plumes of smoke rose above Bahri.  

“We hear the sounds of planes and explosions. We don’t know when this hell will end,” said Bahri resident Mahasin al-Awad, 65. “We’re in a constant state of fear.” 

The army has been deploying jets or drones on RSF forces in neighborhoods across the capital. Many residents are pinned down by urban warfare with scant food, fuel, water and power. 

At least 512 people have been killed and close to 4,200 wounded, according to the United Nations, which believes the actual toll is much higher. The Sudan Doctors Union said at least 387 civilians had been killed.  

The RSF accused the army of violating an internationally brokered cease-fire with airstrikes on its bases in Omdurman, Khartoum’s sister city at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile rivers, and Mount Awliya. 

The army blamed the RSF for violations. 

The cease-fire is supposed to last until Sunday at midnight. 

The violence has sent tens of thousands of refugees across Sudan’s borders and threatens to compound instability across a volatile swath of Africa between the Sahel and the Red Sea.  

“From the warplanes to the tanks and rockets, we had no other option than to leave,” said Motaz Ahmed, a Sudanese man who arrived in Egypt’s capital, Cairo, after a five-day trip. “We left behind our homes, our work, our belongings, our vehicles, everything, so we can take our children and parents to safety.” 

Foreign governments airlifted diplomats and citizens to safety over the past week. Britain said its evacuations would end on Saturday as demand for spots on planes had declined.  

The U.S. said several hundred Americans had departed Sudan by land, sea or air. A convoy of buses carrying 300 Americans left Khartoum late on Friday on a 525-mile trip to the Red Sea in the first U.S.-organized evacuation effort for citizens, The New York Times reported.  

Darfur deaths 

In Darfur, at least 96 people have died since Monday in intercommunal violence rekindled by the army-RSF conflict, U.N. human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said. 

Releases and escapes from at least eight jails, including five in Khartoum and two in Darfur, were compounding chaos, she added.  

In El Geneina, capital of West Darfur, a major hospital supported by medical charity MSF was looted over the past two days, the group said.  

“Many people are trapped in the midst of this deadly violence. They fear risking their safety and lives trying to reach the rare health facilities that are still functional and open,” said Sylvain Perron, MSF’s deputy operations manager for Sudan. 

The United Nations said its offices in Khartoum, El Geneina and Nyala were also ransacked. “This is unacceptable — and prohibited under international humanitarian law. Attacks on humanitarian assets must stop,” U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths posted on Twitter. 

Relief agencies have been largely unable to distribute food to the needy in Africa’s third-largest country, where a third of its 46 million people were already reliant on donations.  

Among Sudan’s neighbors, Egypt said it had taken in 16,000 people, while 20,000 had entered Chad. The U.N. refugee agency said more than 14,000 had crossed into South Sudan, which won independence from Khartoum in 2011 after decades of civil war. 

Some had walked from Khartoum to South Sudan’s border, a distance of over 400 km (250 miles), a spokesperson for the U.N. refugee agency said.

Despite global appeals for talks, army chief General Abdel Fattah Burhan told U.S.-based Arabic language broadcaster Al Hurra it was unacceptable to sit down with RSF head Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, whom he called “the leader of the rebellion.” 

Dagalo, better known as Hemedti, told the BBC that the RSF would not hold talks until fighting ends. Saying the armed forces were “relentlessly” bombing his fighters, he blamed Burhan for the violence. 

“Cease hostilities. After that we can have negotiations,” Dagalo said.
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Millions of Sudanese face acute hunger, increased health risks, and death from recoverable injuries because United Nations agencies have been forced to suspend their lifesaving activities in Sudan, where fighting has it made it too dangerous for them to operate.

Sudan and its neighbors had suffered decades of deprivation, hardship and conflict. Before fighting broke out between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Response Forces two weeks ago, Sudan already hosted more than 4 million forcibly displaced people.

Heavy fighting and insecurity have driven tens of thousands to flee in search of safety and protection, with many people scattered throughout the country and in neighboring states.

“It is very, very worrying,” said Axel Bisschop, U.N. refugee agency representative in Sudan. “It has already caused a devastating impact on the population, including refugees and all displaced people who already are on the margins of society.”

Bisschop said some areas are worse off than others and the UNHCR has had to temporarily pause most aid programs in Khartoum, the Darfurs, and North Kordofan because of dangers to its staff.

“The biggest challenge we have is Darfur” because it has already faced significant intercommunal conflict and displacement, he said, speaking by phone from Port Sudan.

“Now with this added crisis, the situation will be very, very difficult,” he said. “We also are concerned that intercommunal violence is going to increase and that we might have some situations, which will repeat in relation to what we had a couple of years ago.”

That is a reference to tribal clashes that erupted in Sudan’s West Darfur in April 2021. The U.N. office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs, OCHA, said that violence killed 56 people, injured scores of others, and sent thousands fleeing for their lives into neighboring Chad.

Given the constraints on its ability to assist the many people in desperate need, Bisschop said the UNHCR was working closely with the World Food Program, UNICEF and other U.N. and non-governmental agencies to provide basic aid, especially for the newly displaced.

WFP suspends operations

While the will is there, the ability to operate under present conditions remains extremely limited.

The WFP said security concerns have forced it to temporarily suspend its humanitarian operations in Sudan, where one third of the population — around 15 million people — face hunger.

Before the eruption of violence, the WFP had planned to assist 7.6 million Sudanese this year. But those plans have been shelved because the environment is too insecure.

The Sudanese Ministry of Health says 512 people have been killed, a figure U.N. agencies believe is grossly underestimated. The World Health Organization has also verified 25 attacks on health care facilities causing the death of eight people and injuring 18 others.

Brenda Kariuki, the WFP senior regional communication officer in Eastern Africa, said humanitarian operations in the country were virtually impossible, given the intensity of the fighting in many parts of the country.

“As the fighting rages on in parts of Sudan…at a time when a third of the country is in desperate need of assistance,” she said, “we are hearing of acute shortages of food, water, fuel, medicines and access to health care. With this crisis, we are afraid that millions more will plunge into hunger.”

Thousands flee

Thousands of Sudanese and South Sudanese refugees have fled to neighboring countries to escape the escalating violence in Sudan.

The United Nations reports some 20,000 people have fled to Chad and at least 4,000 South Sudanese refugees have arrived in five northern states bordering Sudan in hopes of returning to their homes of origin.

The WFP said those numbers are expected to increase as the crisis escalates. It warns that the consequences, which will be severe and long term, already are being felt.

The agency says that the cost of a food basket already has risen by up to 28 percent across South Sudan’s northern border states since the outbreak of fighting and that “this will further push people into hunger and increase needs in South Sudan.”

Kariuki adds the WFP will be unable to provide aid to needy people inside Sudan while the current situation of insecurity persists.

“WFP’s staff, offices and vehicles and equipment and food stocks have come in the direct line of fire and looting of our warehouses continues,” she said. “To date, we know up to 4,000 metric tons of food meant for vulnerable people has been looted from our warehouses and at least 10 vehicles and six trucks, which transport food, have been stolen.”

She calls that unacceptable “as it takes away humanitarian aid meant for the most vulnerable Sudanese and refugees who desperately need this lifesaving food.”

Children deprived of aid

Among those who will be deprived of essential aid, she said, are the hundreds of thousands of refugees sheltering in Sudan, schoolchildren who will miss their daily meal, malnourished infants, many at risk of dying without treatment, and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers.

U.N. agencies are appealing to the warring parties to take immediate steps to stop the fighting and enable humanitarian workers to safely carry out their lifesaving operations.
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A popular cartoonist in Uganda has launched a social media campaign to highlight the poor state of the country’s healthcare system. #UgandaHealthExhibition on Twitter is telling stories about the poor conditions in hospitals and clinics. Uganda’s Ministry of Health has disputed the allegations.

Pictures of Ugandan doctors treating patients on the floors of hospitals, because of a lack of beds, have this week been circulating on social media.

One photo showed a doctor and health worker stitching a patient’s head injury on a floor mat.

Another photo showed a doctor wearing gloves as protective shoes before surgery.

These are just some of the images critical of Uganda’s healthcare system – part of an online campaign by popular cartoonist Jimmy Spire Ssentongo.

“Just that they ignore and maybe in ignoring things grow beyond what they can even comprehend, or they get to understand that this is happening in their aloof world. But that if this is cast out there and maybe there’s some little sense of shame left, they would feel bad about it,” said Ssentongo. “It was clear that they didn’t want this voice to come out. For it to have come out that strongly was a triumph on our side.”

Ssentongo’s campaign, under the hashtag #UgandaHealthExhibition, has also revealed allegations of under staffing and absenteeism, theft of drugs, abuse of patients, extortion, and bribery.

Ssentongo has more than 175,000 followers on Twitter and the campaign has gained supporters, including those working in medical care, who joined the critical tweeting.

 

Dr. Jacob Otile is a general practitioner.

“We are talking about a system that is already crumbling. And then we look at the after effect of COVID-19,” said Otile. “If we are to make sure we move the next step, the budgetary allocation to health has to significantly go high.

Mismanagement of the little that we have. It ends up in people’s pockets and corruption is one of the biggest problems.”Uganda’s Ministry of Health responded to the twitter campaign by tweeting photos of clean hospital buildings with good medical facilities and blocking Ssentongo’s tweets. 

 

But the campaign led lawmakers like Joan Alobo on Wednesday to discuss the health sector in parliament and share stories of problems from their constituents.

“A woman was taken for caesarian section, but because the mother did not have money, three days after the operation, the woman started oozing out pus. When taken back to theater, there were particles left in the stomach,” Alobo said.

Uganda’s Ministry of Health spokesman Emmanuel Ainebyoona acknowledged to VOA there are problems in the healthcare system and blamed a lack of funding.

“We are not collecting as much revenue. So, we are able to use the available resources to fix the urgent issues,” said Ainebyoona. “And also, for them they are focusing on the curative side. But also, we need to take interest and embrace the preventive message. Things like sleeping under the mosquito net, handwashing, doing physical activity.”

Ssentongo and other activists are calling for an increase in the healthcare budget and better management of available funds.

The Ugandan cartoonist launched another Twitter campaign earlier this month to fix the capital’s poor roads under the hashtag #KampalaPotholeexhibition.

It gained enough traction that authorities carried out road inspections, which led President Yoweri Museveni to order $1.6 million to fix the roads.
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Sudanese fighter jets pounded paramilitary positions in Khartoum on Thursday while deadly fighting and looting flared in Darfur, despite the army and a rival force agreeing to extend a ceasefire deal.

In the final hours of a repeatedly broken three-day cease-fire, due to end at midnight (2200 GMT), the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced a 72-hour extension following pressure from Saudi Arabia and the United States.

There have been multiple truce efforts since fighting broke out on April 15 between Sudan’s army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary RSF commanded by his deputy-turned-rival, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. All have failed.

Foreign representatives involved in seeking to quell the fighting welcomed the extended cease-fire deal and urged full implementation.

In a joint statement, the African Union, the United Nations, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Britain and the United States applauded the two sides’ “readiness to engage in dialogue toward establishing a more durable cessation of hostilities and ensuring unimpeded humanitarian access.”

Doing so, they said, could be followed by a deescalation plan mapped out in an April 20 blueprint for peace.

“We welcome the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces’ announcement extending the ceasefire in Sudan by an additional 72 hours,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken posted on Twitter.

‘Intense shelling outside’

On Thursday, warplanes flew over the capital’s northern suburbs as fighters on the ground exchanged artillery and heavy machine gun fire, witnesses said.

“I hear intense shelling outside my home,” a Khartoum resident told AFP on Thursday evening, asking not to be named.

At least 512 people have been killed and 4,193 wounded in the fighting, according to health ministry figures, although the real death toll is likely much higher.

Hospitals have been shelled and more than two-thirds are out of service, the doctors’ union said, reporting at least eight civilians killed in Khartoum alone Wednesday.

The World Food Program has said the violence could plunge millions more into hunger in a country where 15 million people — one-third of the population — need aid.

Abdou Dieng, U.N. aid chief in Sudan, speaking from Port Sudan on Thursday, said he was “extremely worried about the situation,” with food supplies a huge concern.

Violence beyond Khartoum

Fighting has also flared in the provinces, particularly in the war-torn western region of Darfur.

Witnesses said clashes raged for a second day in the West Darfur capital, El Geneina, with pro-democracy medics reporting a doctor shot dead.

“We are locked up at home and too afraid to go out, so we can’t assess the scale of the damage,” said a resident who asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons.

The U.N. humanitarian agency said the fighting in West Darfur had disrupted food to “an estimated 50,000 acutely malnourished children.”

The violence has trapped many civilians in their homes, where they have endured severe food, water and electricity shortages.

Those who can afford to have taken the long and risky journey to flee the country.

Egypt said Thursday that at least 14,000 Sudanese refugees had crossed the border since fighting erupted, as well as 2,000 people from 50 other countries.

“End the war,” 50-year-old refugee Ashraf told the warring generals after entering Egypt. “This is your own conflict, not that of the Sudanese people.”

At least 20,000 people have escaped into Chad, 4,000 into South Sudan, 3,500 into Ethiopia and 3,000 into the Central African Republic, according to the UN, which has warned if fighting continues as many as 270,000 people could flee.

War crimes suspect escapes

Foreign governments have scrambled to get thousands of their citizens out, and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly urged Britons to leave while they can.

The latest Saudi evacuation ship docked in the Red Sea port of Jeddah on Thursday to take the total evacuated by Riyadh to 2,744, only 119 of them Saudis, the foreign ministry said.

As lawlessness has gripped Sudan, there have been several jailbreaks, including from the high-security Kober prison where top aides of ousted dictator Omar al-Bashir were held.

Among the escapees is Ahmed Harun, wanted by the International Criminal Court to face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

Harun’s escape sparked fears of the involvement of Bashir loyalists in the ongoing fighting.

The army said 79-year-old Bashir was in a military hospital and moved before the fighting erupted.

Daglo’s RSF emerged from the Janjaweed militia, accused of carrying out atrocities during Bashir’s brutal suppression of ethnic-minority rebels in Darfur in the mid-2000s.

Bashir was toppled by the military in April 2019 following civilian mass protests that raised hopes for a transition to democracy.

The two generals seized power together in a 2021 coup, but later fell out, most recently over the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army.
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