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CAIRO (AP) — Sudanese and foreigners poured out of the capital Khartoum and other war zones as fighting Tuesday rocked a new three-day ceasefire brokered by the United States and Saudi Arabia. Aid agencies are becoming increasingly vigilant about the crumbling humanitarian situation in countries that rely on external assistance.
Last week’s series of brief ceasefires either failed entirely or only brought an intermittent lull in the fighting that had raged since April 15 between forces loyal to the country’s two top generals. The lull was sufficient for the dramatic evacuation of hundreds of foreigners, by air and land, which continued on Tuesday.
But it has brought no relief to the millions of Sudanese struggling to find food, shelter and medical care as explosions, shootings and looters ravage their neighborhoods. With a third already in need of humanitarian assistance in the country, multiple aid agencies have had to suspend operations and dozens of hospitals have been forced to close. The UN refugee agency said potentially tens of thousands were preparing to flee to neighboring countries.
Calls for negotiations to end this crisis for Africa’s third-largest country have been ignored. For many Sudanese, the departure of diplomats, aid workers and other foreigners and the closure of the embassy are dreadful signs that international powers expect unrest to only get worse.
Thousands of Sudanese flee Khartoum and the neighboring city of Omdurman. On Tuesday morning, the capital’s bus station was packed with people who had spent the night there in hopes of catching a departing bus.
Drivers have increased fares at border crossings with Egypt and routes to the eastern Red Sea city of Port Sudan, sometimes tenfold. Fuel prices have skyrocketed, from $4.20 to $67 a gallon, and in many cases food and water prices have doubled, said the Norwegian Refugee Council.
Those lucky enough to reach the border crossing face further difficulties.
Teacher Moaz al-Ser arrived at the Arkin border crossing with Egypt early Tuesday morning with his wife and three children after a harrowing journey from Omdurman. They were among hundreds of families awaiting processing. Many people spent the night in the open near the border.
“The intersection is overwhelmed and authorities on both sides do not have the capacity to handle such an increasing number of arrivals,” he said.
new 72 hour truceU.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken extended the nominal three-day truce over the weekend, announcing it would last late Thursday night.
The Sudanese army, commanded by General Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the rival Rapid Relief Force, a paramilitary force led by General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, said Tuesday they would adhere to a ceasefire. In a separate announcement, they said Saudi Arabia played a role in the negotiations.
But the fighting continued, with explosions, gunfire, and the roar of fighter planes blaring overhead over the metropolitan area.
“They only stop when they run out of ammunition,” said Omdurman resident Amin Ishak. He Al-Roumy, a medical facility in Omdurman, said it had suspended services after being hit by artillery shells on Tuesday.
“They don’t respect the ceasefire,” said Atiyah Abdallah Atiyah, an official with the Sudan Doctors Syndicate, a casualty monitoring group.
Dr. Bushra Ibnauf Sulieman, a Sudanese-American doctor who headed the medical school at the University of Khartoum, was stabbed to death outside his home, Doctors’ Syndicate said. He practiced medicine for many years in the United States, where his children live, but he returned to Sudan to train doctors. His colleagues said he was treating people wounded in recent fighting and did not know who killed him.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has expressed concern that one of the warring parties has taken control of the Central Institute of Public Health. in Khartoum.
“This is very dangerous because we have polio isolates in our labs. We have measles isolates in our labs. We have cholera isolates in our labs,” said the WHO representative in Sudan. Dr. Nima Saeed Abid spoke at a UN briefing in Geneva over a video call from Port Sudan.
He did not specify which side owned the facility, but said they were unable to properly manage the biological material because they had ousted their engineers and cut off power. There are biological risks.”
Meanwhile, clashes have escalated in the West Darfur region, residents said. Armed groups in RSF uniforms attacked several areas of the provincial capital of Genena, burning and looting houses and displaced persons’ camps.
A Genena doctor, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, said “fierce fighting is raging all over the city.” “All eyes are on Khartoum, but the situation here is unimaginable.”
Women and children fled their homes in the city center, the city’s main hospital was out of action for days, and the number of casualties was unknown, she said.
According to Darfur 24, an online news outlet focused on reporting on the war-torn region, more fighters on motorcycles and horses are pouring into the city to join the fighting, and the streets are littered with corpses.
The RSF has its roots in Darfur, born out of the notorious Janjaweed militia that perpetrated atrocities while suppressing rebellions in the 2000s.
Citing Sudan’s health ministry, the UN health agency said at least 459 people, including civilians and combatants, have been killed and more than 4,000 injured since the fighting began. Among them, in Khartoum he said 166 people were killed and more than 2,300 wounded.
Those who could headed to the Egyptian border, Port Sudan, or the relatively calm states along the Nile. However, it has been difficult to measure the full scale of displacement.
Mohamed Mahdi of the International Relief Commission warns that Tunaiba refugee camp in eastern Sudan is running out of resources after 3,000 people fleeing Khartoum have taken refuge there, joining some 28,000 refugees from Ethiopia. bottom.
At least 20,000 people fled to the city of Wad Madani, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Khartoum, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. About 20,000 Sudanese have fled to Chad, and about 4,000 South Sudanese refugees living in Sudan have returned home, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency.
Meanwhile, the airlift of foreigners continued.
Germany has evacuated nearly 500 people in three days so far and said the final rescue flight will take off on Tuesday. French military spokesman Colonel Pierre Godilliere told journalists on Tuesday that the French evacuation mission was complete, evacuating more than 500 people from 40 countries.
European airlifts have pulled a wide range of civilians from many countries, in contrast to more limited operations by the US and UK that sent teams to extract diplomats on Sunday. Initially, however, they said they could not organize civilian evacuations.
Britain conducted its first evacuation flight for British civilians from an air base near Khartoum in Cyprus on Tuesday after mounting criticism for failing to help civilians, with two more flights scheduled during the night. announced it was planned. Foreign Secretary James Cleverley earlier said those who wanted to fly had to make their own way to the airfield, calling the situation “dangerous, volatile and unpredictable”.
The United States said on Monday that it is helping American civilians find transportation out of the country by joining them in convoys of other countries traveling from Khartoum to Port Sudan.The White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said reconnaissance assets are helping determine safe routes But the US military is not on the ground.
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Associated Press writers Jill Lawless of London and Kirsten Grieshaber of Berlin contributed to this report.
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