Heavy clashes and artillery fire erupted in Khartoum on Sunday, and residents reported airstrikes, shortly after a ceasefire expired that brought a brief lull in eight weeks of fighting.
Witnesses said the fighting that broke out between the two sides was one of the fiercest battles and included clashes on the ground in the densely populated Haj Youssef neighborhood in the city of Bahri, which along with Khartoum and Omdurman neighbors, forms the capital triangle around the confluence of the Nile.
The army said in a statement on Monday that “the rebel militia (referring to the Rapid Support Forces) were targeting the residential areas of Al-Azhari and Al-Salama with artillery and missile fire”. which resulted in the death of one person and the injury of 3 children.
The statement continued, “The armed forces condemn in the strongest terms this habitual criminal behavior of the rebel militia and warn our citizens to exercise caution and caution.”
The Rapid Support Forces responded with another statement, in which they stated “confirmation of full commitment to the Jeddah Declaration to protect civilians, absolute respect for human rights laws and the international humanitarian community, and the full willingness to engage in discussions in order to achieve stability for our people.”
And the statement continued: “We share the same disappointment with the (Saudi) mediation at the resumption of fighting, and we underline that the putschist militia (according to its description of the armed forces) took advantage of the ceasefire to obtain advantages on the ground, by gathering forces from different regions and attacking our forces in the first hours after the end of the armistice, which left us with only one option, which is to defend ourselves and repel the putschists in all the axes.
On Sunday, Saudi Arabia and the United States, which brokered ceasefire talks in Jeddah, said the truce had allowed the delivery of vital humanitarian aid and contributed to confidence-building measures.
“However, violations have occurred, and following the expiration of the short-term ceasefire, the mediators are deeply disappointed by the immediate resumption of escalating violence, which we strongly condemn,” the statement said. the two countries in a press release.
dimensions of tragedy
Hostilities erupted between the two sides on April 15 over disagreements over an internationally-backed plan for a transition to civilian rule. The conflict has killed hundreds of civilians and displaced more than 1.9 million people, sparking a major humanitarian crisis amid fears of spillover into the volatile region. The fighting is concentrated in the capital, most of which has turned into a battlefield suffering from looting and clashes. Unrest has erupted in other parts of the country, such as the western region of Darfur, which is already suffering from a conflict that peaked nearly 20 years ago. Residents and activists have reported further deterioration in recent days in El Geneina, near the border with Chad, and new waves of attacks by Arab tribesmen linked to the Rapid Support Forces. Among the dead were a number of human rights activists, lawyers and doctors, according to the Darfur Bar Association, which monitors the conflict in the region. The city experienced a massive outage for several weeks. Another town affected is El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state, southwest of Khartoum, on a main road to Darfur. Locals say it is effectively under siege due to the conflict, with food and medicine supplies cut off. Kordofan is an important agricultural region and a source of livestock, oilseeds and gum arabic.
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