Fighting between soldiers and paramilitaries vying for power in Sudan raged Friday in the Darfur region (west), residents told AFP, on the fourth day of a ceasefire. fire negotiated by American and Saudi mediators but never respected.
In al-Fasher, capital of North Darfur, there are “fights with all types of weapons “, according to testimonies of inhabitants.
The war that broke out on April 15 between the army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane and the paramilitaries of General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo's Rapid Support Forces (FSR) has claimed more than 1,800 lives, according to the NGO ACLED.
It has also forced more than a million Sudanese to move within this East African country, one of the poorest in the world, and at least 300,000 residents have taken refuge in neighboring countries, themselves in crisis, according to the UN.
More than half of the Sudanese population – 25 million out of a total of 45 million – now needs humanitarian aid to survive, according to the UN.
The American and Saudi mediators negotiated for two weeks with the two camps a “temporary ceasefire” for a week, which came into force on Monday evening, to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid, which has been impossible so far. No humanitarian corridor could be secured, also blocking civilians who want to leave.
The soldiers and paramilitaries accuse each other of breaking the truce. The US State Department said Thursday evening that it was still seeing “violations” of the ceasefire, particularly in Khartoum and Darfur.
Washington promised “sanctions”, and the he ceasefire agreement provides for a “monitoring mechanism”, but so far no announcement has been made against one side or the other.
The situation is particularly critical in Darfur, the western border region of Chad, already ravaged in the 2000s by a particularly deadly war.