Click to see full-size image. Via Twitter.
The Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) agreed to a seven-day humanitarian ceasefire, the United States and Saudi Arabia confirmed on May 20.
The new ceasefire agreement will take effect on May 22 evening, 48 hours after it was signed in the Saudi city of Jeddah by the warring factions. The ceasefire may be extended with the agreement of both sides, the Kingdom’s Foreign Ministry said.
In a statement, the U.S. State Department acknowledged previous failed attempts at brokering peace in Sudan, but said there was a key difference this time.
“Unlike previous ceasefires, the agreement reached in Jeddah was signed by the parties and will be supported by a US-Saudi and international-supported ceasefire monitoring mechanism,” it said, without giving more detail.
Taking to Twitter, Secretary of State Antony Blinken added: “It is past time to silence the guns and allow unhindered humanitarian access.
“I implore both sides to uphold this agreement – the eyes of the world are watching.”
Before the announcement of the ceasefire, airstrikes were reported in southern Omdurman and northern Bahri, the two cities that lie across the Nile from the capital of Khartoum. Qatar’s embassy was also attacked.
Doha condemned the attack without naming the RSF as responsible but a statement from the army put the blame squarely on the paramilitaries. The embassies of Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have also come under assault in recent weeks.
The army’s Commander-in-Chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the commander of the RSF General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo have been ruling Sudan as the president and vice-president of the so-called Sovereign Council since a coup in October 2021.
The conflict broke out in Sudan on April 15 as a result of a disagreement over how the RSF should be integrated into the army and what authority should oversee the process during transition to civilian-led rule in the country.
The army and the RSF have agreed on multiple ceasefires since the clashes first broke out, but none has effectively taken hold.
The conflict has displaced almost 1.1 million people internally and into neighboring countries. According to the World Health Organization, 705 people have been killed and at least 5,287 wounded.
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