Patchy Cease-Fire in Sudan Brings Drop in Fighting
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Loading... - Douglas Both
- 20 Apr 2023
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Sudan’s army and the paramilitary force announced they would abide by a 24-hour cease-fire that started at 6 p.m. Residents reported diminished fighting in some areas.
A patchy cease-fire between Sudan’s two rival generals held in parts of the capital on Wednesday night, as desperate residents looked for ways to escape the city after five days trapped by the chaotic fighting with dwindling stocks of water and food.
Evacuation from the capital, Khartoum, has proved intensely dangerous since conflict erupted over the weekend between Sudan’s military and a powerful paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces. But after days hunkered inside their homes, often as battle rages in the streets outside, more Sudanese and foreign nationals have sought to flee the city of five million people.
Nearly 300 people have been killed and over 3,000 wounded since fighting erupted on Saturday, the World Health Organization said. Many residents of Khartoum’s outlying neighborhoods, where there is less fighting, have already fled the city by foot, bus and car, following roads along the Nile that lead north toward Egypt or Port Sudan, or to safer areas in the south.
Conditions have deteriorated with dizzying speed in Sudan, even by the standards of modern warfare. Khartoum was already a fragile city before fighting erupted on Saturday, with frequent power outages and soaring food prices. Now it is in the grip of two well-armed, battle-hardened forces, led by generals who had been planning for conflict for months, despite talks that Western mediators hoped would let Sudan transition to a civilian government. Read More…
