Sudan updates: Fighting continues despite new ceasefire
At least 270 people have been killed, says the health ministry amid warnings that Sudan’s health system is at risk of breakdown.
The live blog is now closed. Thank you for joining us. These were the updates on the Sudan unrest on Wednesday, April 19:
The live blog is now closed. Thank you for joining us. These were the updates on the Sudan unrest on Wednesday, April 19:
- Sudan’s military as well as the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) separately announced a new 24-hour ceasefire starting at 6pm local time (16:00 GMT) but shelling continued past the deadline.
- Earlier, heavy fighting was reported near the presidential palace in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, and in a neighbourhood in the west of the city where homes belonging to the head of the RSF and his family are located.
- At least 270 people have been killed since clashes broke out, the World Health Organization said, citing Sudan’s health ministry.
- Many hospitals in Khartoum remain out of service and medical personnel have been unable to reach healthcare facilities. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is warning that Sudan’s health system is at risk of breakdown.
Arab League urges ceasefire ahead of Eid al-Fitr
The Arab League has urged the Sudanese army and RSF to announce a ceasefire during the three-day Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr.
“I urge the Sudanese parties in the name of Islam, Arab values, and humanity to announce a ceasefire during the Eid holiday in order to enable civilians to respond to urgent humanitarian cases,” Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the league’s secretary general said in video message.
Gheit appealed to warring sides to end the conlfict and allow people to access food supplies and medical assistance at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Will Sudan’s violence cause a wave of refugees?
Humanitarian organisations say they’re ready to respond to the looming refugee crisis – but the conflict has halted operations.
The situation in Sudan could potentially trigger a looming refugee crisis, humanitarian organisations say, in a country already hosting refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs), and which is a neighbour to other nations also stricken by conflict.
Read more here.
Khartoum residents attempt to flee as deadly clashes continue
‘Sounds of clashes’ cease in south Khartoum
Al Jazeera’s correspondent Haitham Uweit says “calm prevails in the centre of Khartoum” more than three hours after the ceasefire came into effect.
“The African Union, Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and the United Nations say they have received a statement from the two fighting sides announcing their commitment to the truce,” Uweit said.
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera’s Hassan Razak reported that although the “sounds of clashes” have ceased in south Khartoum, markets remained closed and streets seemed deserted.
Russia’s Wagner Group denies it is operating in Sudan
The Russian private military Wagner Group has denied it was operating in Sudan and said it has nothing to do with current military battles.
Western diplomats in Khartoum said in March 2022 that Wagner was involved in illicit gold mining in Sudan, among other activities. Sudan denied this was the case.
“Due to the large number of inquiries from various foreign media about Sudan, most of which are provocative, we consider it necessary to inform everyone that Wagner staff have not been in Sudan for more than two years,” the group wrote on Telegram.
Wagner had not had contacts for a long time with either Sudan’s military ruler, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, or paramilitary chief General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, whose forces are at the heart of the current conflict, it said.
Companies associated with Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin have no financial interests in Sudan, it added, saying the conflict was a purely internal Sudanese affair.
Red Cross fears increase in civilian casualties
The International Committee of the Red Cross has warned that the number of civilian casualties will increase if the fighting does not end soon.
“The short period of the truce does not allow us to do what needs to be done to secure medical aid and remove corpses from the streets,” Patrick Youssef, director of Africa at the International Committee of the Red Cross told Al Jazeera.
“All hospitals in Sudan need medical materials to conduct operations,” he said.
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MSF ‘stuck in conflict’ amid supply shortage
Non-profit humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) says it is running out of supplies at its hospitals in Sudan.
“MSF has been providing life-saving medical care but our team cannot move, we are stuck in the conflict,” Sabrina Sharmin, the organisation’s deputy operations manager in Sudan told Al Jazeera.
Sharmin said MSF’s location in Darfur was looted on Sunday, and that it is not able to move supplies as fighting continues.
“We might have a week’s worth of supply to run our hospital but nothing after that.”
❗ Update from Sudan ❗
Our compound in Nyala, Darfur was raided by armed men, who stole everything including vehicles and office equipment
Our warehouse – holding vital medical supplies – was also raided, we do not know to what extent as we have no access.
— MSF International (@MSF) April 19, 2023
Residents struggle with power cuts, food shortages
Residents in Khartoum are in fearful about dwindling food supplies and a breakdown in medical services as the Sudanese army and RSF continue fighting despite a new ceasefire.
Huddled in their homes, residents of one of Africa’s largest cities are struggling with power cuts and worried about how long food supplies will last.
“Today, we were starting to run out of some essentials,” a resident concerned for the safety of her brother who had gone to look for food, told the Reuters news agency.
Even before the conflict, about a quarter of Sudan’s population was facing acute hunger.
The World Food Programme halted one of its largest global aid operations in the country on Saturday after three of its workers were killed.
International leaders are in talks to bring an end to the continuing fighting in Sudan, but observers are growing increasingly concerned about the possible ramifications of this conflict dragging on.
“The situation in Sudan is a major regional security challenge for the Horn of Africa,” Ovigwe Eguegu, policy analyst at Development Reimagined, told Al Jazeera.
“Considering the risks of all-out civil war and associated problems such as refugees, there are also serious concerns that this may become a flashpoint for great-power politics because of the dependence of the Sudan Army and the RSF on foreign powers for finance and weapons.”
Read more here.
The situation in Sudan is dangerous for both local residents and others present in the country, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said.
Scholz said Berlin has a duty to help its nationals, along with citizens from other countries, leave.
“We feel obliged to think about the possibility of leaving and to help it work. If we do something, we won’t just do it for ourselves,” he said at a news conference with his Portuguese counterpart.
Fighting continues an hour after ceasefire
Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan says shelling can still be heard in the capital more than an hour after the ceasefire came went into effect.
“We can still hear shelling in the vicinity of the presidential palace and the general command of the military,” she reported from Khartoum.
“The ceasefire is not unconditional with both sides saying they will abide by it only if they are not fired at by the other party.”
US officials in contact with rival leaders
The White House has condemned violence in Sudan and said all American personnel there are accounted for and has called on both parties to establish “immediate ceasefire”.
“Senior US officials are in direct contact with the leadership of the Sudanese Armed Forces and RSF, and we urge them to engage them in dialogue without delay,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.
She said the continuing military operations are “recklessly endangering Sudanese people, diplomats and humanitarian aid workers”.
International diplomatic pressure raises ceasefire hopes: Analyst
Hafez Kabir, a political analyst in Khartoum, says he believes the recently agreed ceasefire has a greater chance of success than the previous failed one.
“International diplomatic pressure has a great impact on both sides of the conflict, so they will abide by the truce,” he said.
Start Here: What’s happening in Sudan?
Start Here explains what is happening in Sudan.
Fighting continues even as rival sides agree to ceasefire
Reporting from Khartoum, Al Jazeera’s Haitham Uweit says there are continuing violent clashes near the presidential palace in Khartoum.
“Both sides agreed to the new truce, but fighting continues,” he said.
Sudanese soldiers stopped, disarmed by Chad’s army
Chad’s army has stopped and disarmed a contingent of 320 Sudanese soldiers who entered the neighbouring country on Monday, Chadian Defence Minister Daoud Yaya Brahim says.
“We fear that this joint confrontation between the Sudanese will spill over to Darfur,” the minister said, adding that in that case maintaining security would be difficult.
Chad’s government closed its border with Sudan on Saturday and called for calm.
Army agrees to 24-hour ceasefire
Sudan’s army has issued a statement saying it agrees to a 24-hour ceasefire starting at 6pm (16:00 GMT).
“The truce will start at 6pm and will continue until 6pm the next day to facilitate humanitarian demands, provided the other party will respect it,” the statement said.
Earlier, the RSF said it was fully committed to the ceasefire.
UN humanitarian programme in ‘total shutdown’
Martin Griffiths, the United Nations undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, says the fighting has “totally shut down” the world body’s work in Sudan.
“People aren’t moving, supplies have been looted and we don’t know what stocks are left,” Griffiths told Al Jazeera.
“The focus has to be relentlessly and with anger on the fact that people have been forced into this lockdown across the country, during the fasting month of Ramadan, close to Eid and in 40-degree temperatures,” he said.
Griffiths called on the two generals of the fighting parties to “knock it off and respond to the needs of their people”.
Germany cancels plan to evacuate citizens
The German government has cancelled a planned evacuation of German citizens from Sudan for the time being because of the security situation in the country, according to German news agency DPA.
“The federal government condemns the fighting in Sudan in the strongest possible terms. We are appalled by the extent of the violence, especially against civilians, diplomats and aid workers,” deputy government spokesman Wolfgang Büchner said in Berlin.
A plan for the deployment of military aircraft to Khartoum was stopped because of the security situation in the capital, DPA said.
Three A400M military transport planes had taken off from Wunstorf near Hanover early morning to take on board German citizens at the embattled Khartoum airport but were reported to be way back to Germany later in the day.
38 hospitals providing emergency services: Health ministry
Mohamed Ibrahim, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health, has said the healthcare situation has improved after the ministry provided hospitals with fuel to run electricity generators.
“Thirty-eight hospitals now provide emergency services,” he told Al Jazeera in Khartoum.
Clashes near presidential palace ‘at most intense’
Reporting from Khartoum, Al Jazeera’s Haitham Uweit says “clashes are at their most intense now around the presidential palace”.
Uweit noted that the fighting in this strategic location has not stopped for five days.
“Those stuck in this area are living in difficult humanitarian conditions,” he said. “Civilian suffering increases.”
Meanwhile, the Reuters news agency reported that there was a heavy exchange of gunfire in the Jabra neighbourhood of west Khartoum, where homes belonging to RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely know as “Hemedti”, and his family are located. Hemedti’s location has not been revealed since the fighting began on Saturday.
Medical committee calls for ‘urgent intervention’
The Sudanese Medical Committee has said 39 of the 59 hospitals and clinics in Khartoum have been left incapable of serving patients.
Some hospitals had been bombed, others attacked and looted, it said in a statement, calling for “urgent intervention” to protect medical staff and patients.
According to the official doctors’ union, the death toll is expected to be far higher with many wounded unable to reach hospitals.
The union has reported “severe shortages” in remaining facilities.
Sudanese paying the price for quarrel between two powerful men: UK minister
Andrew Mitchell, the United Kingdom’s minister of state for development and Africa, has called on the rival sides to surrender their weapons and return to their barracks.
“What is happening in Sudan undermines stability in the region,” he told Al Jazeera from London. “We are working with our partners in the region and key players in the United Nations to end these atrocities.”
Mitchell said the situation appeared to be “a quarrel between two powerful men over their role in the new structure of Sudan, and the people of Sudan are paying the price for this competition”.
He added, “The continuation of the fighting will lead to waves of migration and famine. This is the worst scenario we can imagine.”
Diplomatic missions call for ceasefire
Diplomatic missions in Sudan have issued a joint statement calling for fighting parties to observe their obligations under international law.
The missions have specifically urged both parties to “protect civilians, diplomats and humanitarian actors”.
They have asked all forces to avoid further escalations and initiate talks to “resolve outstanding issues”.
The missions included the embassies of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, the Republic of Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Delegation of the European Union.
Sudan health situation ‘unprecedented’
Bakri Bashir, of Doctors Without Borders, has told Al Jazeera that the health situation in Sudan is “unprecedented”.
“If the fighting continues at this pace, we are threatened with losing the entire health system in the country,” Bashir told from Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.
He said that nearly 220 wounded people were admitted in a hospital in North Darfur state, of whom 34 died.
“The causes of death were the result of delayed arrival because they were stuck on the roads, in addition to the lack of adequate health equipment in the hospital and the absence of an operating room.”
Bakri added that the medical personnel are “exhausted” after working for more than 72 hours straight.